The Rescue
by Braidless Baka
Summary: Who's the new kid making Yeerk references? He claims to be totally innocent, but is he really? [COMPLETE]
1. Chapter One

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The Rescue

By Flex

Disclaimer (and stuff like that): I am _not_ responsible for the Animorphs, and anybody who thinks I am should have their head examined. I made up Joe, and a friend of mine made up Lee. If you read this and think "where the **** did Lee come from?" There is another story before this one. It was written by "EnglishChick". Look up "The Addition: part 1" for some inside info on Lee.

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Chapter 1 (Joe)

Okay, my name is Joe. I don't suppose I can really tell you much more about who I am and where I live. If I did I would probably die. Weird stuff has been going down lately, and you need to know about it. I'm not kidding around here either. We are under attack – from outer space.

Now you're telling me that I _must_ have a screw loose somewhere. Aliens? Attacking earth? Well, sorry to pull you out of your happy fantasy world but it's happening. And if we can't stop it then you ought to wave your planet goodbye.

I'm still pretty confused myself, I mean I'm usually a sceptical type of guy. But… once you've seen what I've seen, you don't tend to be quite so sceptical. You aren't so likely to laugh about little green men anymore. And you definitely don't scoff the idea of outer space.

Trust me, the Yeerks are everywhere. The Yeerks are little, disgusting, slug-shaped balls of slime. Until they get into your head. Then they become one of the most sophisticated weapons in the galaxy. They completely control you, render you helpless. You walk around like you do every day and there's no one around to hear you scream. No one would ever notice you had changed.

We're no match for them. We, as in us mere humans. I guess the Andalites stand more of a chance. They do that because they have the morphing technology. Imagine if we had that technology. We would stand a chance. I know six guys who do. Six guys and an Andalite with the power to turn into any animal they can touch.

So I suppose that's got to be a rough ride at the end of the day, but I got onto that ride blindfolded. Literally.

I stood in the middle of the crowded corridor trying to work out my timetable. I was supposed to be in 16-C any minute now and I had no idea where I was going. Glancing around I chewed my bottom lip feverishly. I must have looked like some kind of lost soul when I felt a light tap on my shoulder.

"You new?"

Turning, I took in the girl who was standing behind me. At first I almost mistook her for a boy. She had short, brown hair that didn't even reach her shoulders. But it perfectly matched her face, a sort of 'no-nonsense' attitude was plastered all over it. She stood about my height; if she was shorter there wasn't much in it. I felt intimidated… or shadowed in a way. Her sharp, brown eyes seemed to be searching for something, I'm not sure how to explain it, something deeper. I shook it off. I was imagining things again.

"Yeah," I said, answering her original question. "Just got here today. You know where 16-C is?"

Turned out that was where the girl, Leanne, was headed. I ended up sitting next to her in my English class. Our teacher, Miss. Rix, paced the front of the classroom. Talking at about a mile a minute. I tried to take in what she was telling us, but most of it washed over me. Then she started talking about aliens. She stopped talking and peered around the classroom. She pointed at me, and pushed her glasses back up her nose. "You. Name?"

"Joseph."

"Joseph, if, for the sake of argument, you had to name an alien race, what would you name it?"

I paused for a minute. I mean, it's not like it's a question you get asked every day is it? Name a race of independent people. I said the first word that popped into my head.

"Yeerk."

She stopped and looked over the top of those glasses at me. I could have sworn Leanne went slightly rigid.

"Yeerk?"

I nodded. "Yes miss." Had I missed something? Was she quizzing me because she could tell I hadn't been listening?

"Spell it."

I inhaled deeply. Spell it? Oh well…

"Y. E. E. R. K. I guess."

She wrote it across the board in large letters and then continued about how one would describe these 'Yeerks'. In purple prose, of course.

"What's a Yeerk?" Hissed Leanne.

I shrugged discreetly. How was I going to know? But Leanne was persistent.

"What gave you that?"

I shrugged again. "I dunno. I made it up."

She must have sensed the tolerance in my voice since she didn't press the issue. Eventually, Miss. Rix stopped talking. Without any explanation and without giving us any work to do she left the room. "Does she usually leave without giving you guys any work?"

"Supply teacher."

I mouthed a silent 'Oh'. Leanne was acting awfully short and snappy all of a sudden. Weird. Within minutes, Miss Rix returned, and had someone with her.

I started asking Leanne who he was. She cut me off. "Vice Principle Chapman."

I mouthed another 'Oh'. Chapman looked at the board, which still had my made-up word written on it. He said something to Miss. Rix before turning and leaving. Slamming the door in his wake.

"Joseph. Mr. Chapman wants to see you after the bell. To say hello." I nodded.

Five minutes later the bell rung. I packed away my stuff and Leanne unexpectedly caught hold of my arm. "Be careful Joe."

I raised my eyebrows sceptically. Like I said, I'm generally a sceptical guy. "Of what?"

"Well… Chapman is… He's…"

A short, dark-haired guy suddenly caught hold of Leanne's shoulder, spinning her to face him. "Lee? Don't we have to be somewhere? Right now?"

"But Marco, he's…"

"Will you shut up?" He hissed in a lower voice. Like I couldn't hear him. He was standing right next to me. Then turning to me he said, "It's Joseph right?"

I nodded, "Joe. And you're Marco?"

"Class clown at heart." He smiled. Or rather, he tried to smile. It didn't work for him. Not in the mood he was in right then. "I'm sorry and everything, but Lee and I need to be somewhere. Catch you round?" He was already turning to go.

"Yeah. I guess I will."

I watched their backs for a while before realising I was hopelessly lost again.


	2. Chapter Two

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Chapter 2 (Marco)

We caught Jake on his way to Math class. I only know that was where he was headed because Jake and I were in that class together. He tried to remind us that talking about things like this in the school corridor was risky, and he had my complete support in the matter. But, let's face it, not many things are more 911 than this. We told him about Chapman's sudden, yet very brief, appearance in our English class, and the new kid, Joseph. Jake had that dutiful, 'I-can-handle-this' expression on his face – until I told him what Lee had almost told Joseph.

"You what?" Jake spoke with a look of pure disbelief on his face. I knew what he was talking about. What Lee had almost done was pure and utter madness, there's no two ways about it. You see, Chapman is a Controller. Someone who's under Yeerk control. And he's the most important Controller we know about. Letting Chapman know who we are would suddenly make our lives slightly more risky. But, then again… We eat risky for breakfast. Regularly.

Lee was fidgeting with her short brown hair, like a little kid caught at the cookie jar. Jake's not really an angry kind of guy. Me? I was furious. But I suppose that might just have something to do with the fact that I… Well, the fact is that I _hate_ Lee. We could be really good friends, honest. The only thing standing in the way of Lee and me being best buds is that she wants to kill my mother. Maybe that makes Lee sound like an utter loon, but as much as I hold against her, I'll say she's not a loon at all. You see, my mother is host to Visser One. And to make it worse, Visser One killed Lee's parents. Indirectly, you understand, and my mom had nothing to do with it, but Lee still has her heart set on killing my mom.

"Jake," said Lee earnestly, "Chapman's as good as got him nailed. Joe is going to be a major target. He knows something. It's not exactly the most common word in the Oxford dictionary is it?"

"Look, Lee," I snapped. "It doesn't mean anything. He could be a Controller himself."

"Why would he slip up like that then? It's almost as good as revealing himself."

"I don't know." My mind whirled frantically for a satisfactory reply. "Maybe the real Joseph got control for a second. Just blurted it out."

"It didn't sound blurted to me. He thought about it carefully." She suddenly rounded on me. "You should know that Marco! You were sitting right there in the desk in front!"

"Lee! You almost told him what Chapman was!"

I suppose I was getting a bit loud. Jake put a restraining hand on my shoulder. He didn't have to say anything to me. It was like he was telepathic or something. _Punch her in the right in the nose, Marco. Go on._ Yeah right. Even if he had said something like that to me, I would have been too shocked to actually do anything about it. Basically he was saying to me, _Watch it Marco. Don't do anything dumb._

"Keep your voice down Marco, or you won't be in a position to criticise." He turned to Lee. "If he knows something and is undercover, I could ask you that. Why reveal himself? I think, what we have here is a pure fluke."

"The fact still stands, Jake. If it was a pure fluke, then they have him for nothing."

"They don't actually have him yet," I pointed out sourly.

Lee's hands flew to here hips. "And how long do you think it will take? I give it a night."

I had nothing to say to that.

Lee turned back to Jake. "If it was pure fluke they'll have him for nothing," she repeated. "They'll have him because they'll think he's one of us."

That made Jake pause. I could almost see the cogs in his head racing into overdrive. I suppose what Lee said kind of made sense. But if Lee said it, I was slightly inclined to disagree with her. I saw what she was saying. If… _if_… he was innocent, Joseph would have a lot happening to him. And not all of it would be pleasant. The Yeerks would make him a Controller, and it would be all our fault. I wasn't entirely sure I could put up with that. They would think we'd slipped up and they'd captured one of us Animorphs. When, in reality, all they had was an innocent kid who'd made up a word in his English class. Considering, of course, that he _was_ innocent.

I watched Jake, trying to interpret the look on his face. "Jake, we've been friends for, how long? Please, please, please tell me that you _are not_ going to do a Rachel on me."

I saw a faint smile wash over Jake's face. Rachel was Jake's cousin. And we both knew that the first words out of Rachel's mouth would be, "Let's do it!" Jake's smile vanished, and I suddenly realised how different the cousins actually were.

He shook his head, "No. It's too risky."

"But, Jake…"

"No Lee." Jake surprised me as he cut Lee's plea short. I had expected Jake to give her a little more leeway. "It's too risky."

As she turned to storm off, I caught her by the arm. She turned to me slowly. "Lee. Would you stop acting like you're in love with this guy or something? It's starting to freak me out."

Ohhh, the venom. If looks could kill. She wrenched her arm free and started to storm off. Jake shot me a look that said _Great going Marco_.

"Lee." She stopped. She didn't turn or say anything, but I could tell Jake had her full attention by the way she stood. "Don't do anything stupid. Wait until we all get the chance to hook up later on and we'll talk about it then. When everyone has a vote."

Having taken in all she needed too, Lee headed towards her next lesson.

Sighing, Jake turned to me. "Can't you two just kiss and make up?"

I was about to say something along the lines of a word I shouldn't really say out loud. But, instead I said, "What? And give you and Cassie some kind of competition?" Jake turned slightly red and trudged off ahead of me. Hurrying after him, I added, "Mind you, I'm not sure if either of us could beat Tobias and Rachel." After saying her name I shot a quick look round for Rachel. You can never be too careful with Rachel.


	3. Chapter Three

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Chapter 3 (Joe)

I eventually found my way to Chapman's office and rapped on the door. A voice from inside told me to come in so I did, very slowly. Chapman was sitting at his desk looking up from some papers he had apparently been reading when I knocked.

"Joseph?"

"Yes sir." Lee's words were ringing in my ears. _Be careful._ No problem. He gave me the creeps anyway.

"Well sit down."

I did so. It was like I was walking on eggshells. None of the headmasters at my other schools had welcomed me so personally. And why didn't he want to see me before he had seen my word on the blackboard? Freaky.

"Welcome to the school Joseph." I nodded my acknowledgement. "I was in your English class earlier. What was that word on the blackboard? Was it yours?"

"Yes sir."

"Interesting. What does it mean?"

"I'm not sure sir. I made it up."

"Come on Joseph. It must have meant something." Why was he acting so interested in that word? What did it mean? Everyone wanted to know about that damned word.

I asked a question. "Why is it so important?"

"It's not particularly. It's just very imaginative."

"It's only five letters long. A string of five letters. What's so imaginative about that?"

"It has a certain ring to it. Yeerk." He tried the word out. There was a look on his face that I couldn't quite place. A look between contempt and curiosity. Like he knew something I didn't. I hate not knowing things. Maybe I'm nosy; I'll admit it. I just hate somebody else knowing more about something than I do.

There was a pause, before Chapman tried a different tack. "Have you heard about the Sharing?"

"Umm, no. I just moved in yesterday. I haven't had a chance to explore much yet."

"You should look it up. It may interest you." He glanced absently at his watch and then started. "I've kept you here ten minutes. You should get to your next lesson. If you hurry you shouldn't be late."

I got up to leave. Just as I was about to open the door Chapman spoke. "Joseph?"

I turned to face him. "You have any problems you should come to me all right?"

I nodded. What else was I supposed to do? Tell him no? I thankfully slid out of his office and headed in the direction which, I hoped, my next lesson was.

Having no homework to do, I occupied myself at home by playing on my computer. BAM! BAM! An alien's head popped off and I got into the control room. Input information from the main computer into the laptop. A few seconds. I turned to leave and this _huge_ alien was blocking the way. I brought up my inventory and found I didn't have a rocket launcher. Damn!

"Joey!"

"What Mom?" I was sitting wondering how I was going top pop the alien's head off now. My best chance would be the three grenades I still had from the last boss. The alien glared at me from the pause screen. _One minute Mr. Alien. Then I'll splatter your guts across this control room,_ I promised him. Mom still hadn't shouted back to me. "Mom?"

"Joe? Could you come down here a minute?"

"But Mom," I whined. "I'm busy!"

"_Joseph_!" Argh! My full name! "_Get your rear in gear and down these stairs little man! Now!_"

Sighing, I put the control pad on my bed. I glanced at the paused computer screen. _I'll have you later._ I promised the green thing on the screen. Then I trudged down the stairs.

"What have I done now?" I asked. When I turned the corner at the bottom of the staircase, I found out.

Two policemen were standing with my Mom. Their badges read Jones and Smith. Mom put her hands on her hips. "That's what I'd like to know."

I gulped. This was bad. This was very bad. I hadn't even been here a day and already I had the police force down my neck.

Jones turned to me. If it he hadn't been a policeman I would have laughed at him. He wasn't any taller than me and his neck had disappeared under a roll of flab coming down from his chin. He was balding and what hair he had left was grey – or white. "Do you know what we're here for Joseph?"

I shook my head and answered truthfully. "No idea."

Smith spoke next. He was in better shape than Jones, tall a little skinny and a bush of blond hair. "There's a little newsagent in the mall. Do you know it?"

I nodded. I had to pass through on my way home this evening. I'd even stopped in to buy a bar of chocolate.

"Someone shoplifted that shop this evening Joseph. Did you go in at all?"

"Yeah. In, got a bar of chocolate, out again. No more than five minutes at most."

"They caught a boy, like yourself, on the security camera taking a few bars of chocolate. We think that was you."

Mom's cry of _Joe!_ And my yelp of _I didn't do it!_ Came simultaneously. Mom looked disgusted. At the policemen or me I couldn't really tell.

"I didn't do it Mom," I repeated quietly. I'm not sure if she actually believed me. But the words Uh-oh passed through my mind as she turned her gaze from me towards the policemen. They'd better be good at avoiding plates.

"How dare you," she seethed quietly, "come into my home and accuse my son of something you have no proof of." Her cheeks were red, almost matching her hair. I don't have my mother's hair, mine's a mousy brown colour, like my Dad. I've got my mother's blue eyes though. And right now, her eyes were an insanely intense blue.

"We aren't accusing anybody yet ma'am." Jones tipped his hat to Mom. "We just want Joe to come…"

"Joseph," I growled. If they wanted to pin a crime on me they could at least call me by my name.

"Okay. We want _Joseph_ to come down to the station for questioning. Nothing serious, just where he was and so on."

"Well he can't. I've got to wait in for my son."

Chance, the brat in training, had been living here for a while longer than I had. Dad had moved up here while Mom and me stayed put. House hunting had been going on apparently. Chance was already enrolled in school when I got here, and today had been his class field trip. Dad was out and Mom was waiting in for him.

"I'm sure Joseph will be fine on his own. We won't keep him for long." I could have sworn I saw a glint in Smith's eyes when he said that. 'Why' was the key question.

"You'll be okay Joe?"

I shrugged. "I guess. If it lets me clear this thing up." The truth was, I was terrified of going anywhere with these cops. I just didn't trust them.

Mom nodded her assent, and I walked out to the squad car with Smith on my left and Jones on my right. As though they were guarding me. As though they didn't want me getting away.

As I stooped to get into the back, Jones put a hand to guide my head into the car. Like they did with convicts. I sat in the car. A leathery smell rose up to greet me. There were bars separating me from them. I definitely felt like a prisoner now. There was no way out, and I was at the complete mercy of these cops.

So we drove off, me in the back feeling like a prisoner.


	4. Chapter Four

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Chapter 4 (Lee)

We eventually met up later that night. Marco and Jake headed to Marco's and rung round everyone. There was a reason that they didn't go to Jake's and that was because of Tom. Tom is Jake's older brother and they tell me that he's a Controller so we avoid making phone calls around him. No matter how cryptic we are. Controllers are bad for our health.

So there we were. All in Cassie's barn, surrounded by animals of every shape and size. Cassie was getting some chores done at the same time. Her life must be hectic. We all have to live a double life, but Cassie can't cut corners. Not when she's dealing with animals. Her mum is a vet at the Gardens, and her dad runs the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. Lot's of animals needing lots of food, lots of water and lots of medication.

Cassie. She's about average height with black hair cut just below her ears. And… I hate to have to point this out… but she's black. If I hadn't said that you would have assumed that she was white wouldn't you? Don't lie to me. She's African-American, which poses me no problems. She's a caring person, and you know that even if she mucked up your life entirely (which I can't ever imagine Cassie doing) you would know that her heart was in the right place. If you were to ask Cassie where she's happiest she would probably say at the clinic or the Gardens. And nobody's said anything to me directly, but I have a feeling that Jake and Cassie like one another. Not just like but _like_. You know?

Rachel. Cassie's best friend, and Jake's cousin. And, at a push, Tobias's girlfriend. Tall, pretty and blond. I know what you're thinking, but forget the blond jokes. There is a brain under the hair and it won't like you poking fun. Marco sometimes calls her Xena warrior princess. She's dangerous. And she is well into fighting the Yeerks. Dangerous _and_ fighting Yeerks. Hmmm. Poor Yeerks.

Jake. Marco's best friend. Our fearless leader. Or not as the case may be. Don't get me wrong, if you had to have somebody brave around to make decisions then you would choose Jake. Trust me. I know the guy. Sometimes I wonder if he regrets having to make all the decisions. If someone falls ill of the Yeerks one day, it's all going to be on Jake. He'll have told them where to be and when. And even if he's not to blame, he'll still blame himself. Tall, brown hair, and imposing. That's how to tell Jake apart from the others. Something in him demands respect. I don't know what it is, and maybe I never will. Maybe I don't want to know.

Tobias. Our living proof of what happens if you stay in morph over the two-hour time limit. He's become a _nothlit_. That's what we call people trapped in a morph. I've never seen Tobias as a human but I'm told his hair was dirty blond. That's basically all I know about his human appearance. The hawk is as you would expect. Brown feathers and golden brown eyes. A wicked curved beak designed for ripping flesh. Talons designed to catch small animals that move too slow. A hunter. A predator. A red tail hawk.

Ax. Or Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. It's a long name, and that's why we call him Ax. It's not a human name, it's Andalite. Andalites look like blue deer. Until you get that little bit closer and notice the human-looking torso. Andalites have no mouths and no nose, although they do have a couple of slits there instead of the nose. His eyes are more-or-less in the right place, until you see the ones bugging out of the top of his head. Two of them sitting on stalks. And he has this wicked tail, like a scorpion's tail with a scythe-like blade parading about on the end of it. Ax in his human morph is slightly less disturbing. _Slightly_. He looks disturbingly pretty. Tall and has dark hair. Don't ask me to explain it. Please. Apparently his morph is a mixture of Jake, Rachel, Cassie and Marco. Ax's brother Elfangor, is how the others got their morphing powers. Not me, I came into this after the rest of them. Elfangor, by some twisted logic, is Tobias's father. So I suppose, in the grand scheme of things, Ax is actually Tobias's Uncle. Brother of his father. Did you follow that?

Then you have Marco. Short guy, black hair, makes a joke out of everything. If you came in on one of our meetings you would probably walk in on Marco trying to make someone laugh. It's just the way he is. He's a very smart guy too. But we don't get on too well. Why? I have no idea. Well, actually I do. You see, his mother, or the Yeerk inside her head, killed my parents. Murdered them. I don't want you to think it was an accident. It was cold-blooded murder. So I'm out for revenge for my parents. I am going to kill Visser One, and if I have to kill Marco's mother to do it… I'm not going to say that I would kill her, I don't know if I could. But if I get my only opportunity… I've tried to apologise to Marco, but he won't hear it. His problem, I guess.

So what's the story? Tobias's only communication since he got trapped in morph is thought speak. It's the way you communicate in a morph. Speaking inside your head. Jake went over what he knew, Marco and I jumping in at odd intervals to add to the story.

"So, what we have is someone who obviously knows about the Yeerks and has been captured, but we don't know who's side he's on?" I nodded. Cassie stopped what she was doing to ponder her own question. "Shouldn't we try to find out more about this before we do anything else? I mean, we've trusted before – wrongly."

My God! The subtle cow! "You've trusted me – rightly." I pointed out, furious that she could overlook that. They'd had a hit and a miss. How dare they talk like they've never been able to trust anyone? My voice went up a note as I spoke. It does that when I get angry. I expected someone to crack a joke about it, Marco or whoever. But no one did.

"I know Lee, I'm sorry. But we trusted David." That hit me like a slap in the face. David had almost got them killed. I slunk back in submission.

I agree with Cassie, said Tobias. We should check things out first, maybe see if Erek has anything to help us before we jump in head first.

Erek is a first-class spy. He was our main source of inside information. He is a Chee, who is an android who cannot be violent. But he hates the Yeerks as much as we do, and helps us out with information all the time. If anyone knew about anything unusual it would be Erek, and we would be the first to find out about it.

"Okay, we follow Cassie and Tobias's advice. We sweat it out. Once we get in touch with Erek we'll go from there." Jake glanced at me. "All right?"

I shrugged and met his gaze evenly. "Why shouldn't it be?"

He gave me 'the look'. He knew I felt responsible. I don't know why, but I did. I was the first person he had got to know, I had shown him around, he barely knew anybody. If I had left him in the corridor he might not have made it to the lesson at all and nobody would have suspected a thing. _Stupid,_ I told myself. _He would have made it eventually, with or without your help_. The truth right? So why did it sound like I was lying to myself?


	5. Chapter Five

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Chapter 5 (Joe)

The police car pulled out off the curb and into the street. Just as we got to the top of the street, we stopped to let a mini bus through. I grinned as I saw Chance's shocked face peering through the window. Apparently he was looking at the police car, but I was willing to bet he hadn't expected to see his brother in the back of it.

I sighed as we turned. There is surprisingly little to do in the back of a police car. I was wishing I'd brought a book. About ten minutes went by. Neither Smith or Jones spoke to me. Or to each other for that matter. Suddenly I jerked. This wasn't the way to the police station! We were heading out of town, not into it! Suddenly Leanne's words rung in my head more forcefully than they had even when I was sitting in Chapman's office. _Be careful Joe_. Help!

I frantically pulled on the handle to open the door. Maybe it's a good thing the door wouldn't open. We were going at about 100 kilometres per hour. I don't think I would have survived a fall like that. But I swore pretty loudly when it dawned on me. The backdoors were auto locking ones, like child locks. They would have to be. This was a patrol car! And they were made so that a prisoner couldn't hurt the driver or his partner.

I was trapped. And there was no way for me to get out.

I shouted at them at the top of my voice, hoping this was all a mistake. They weren't _kidnapping_ me were they? Why? I thumped hard at the wire with a fist and got little mesh marks all over the blade of my hand. But they ignored me completely.

"Are you guys deaf or something?" I yelled. Silence. I could feel little pinpricks stabbing at the corners of my eyes. They were threatening to overflow. It would have been better if they had said something to me, anything, even if they only told me how pathetic I was. It would be better than complete and utter silence.

Fighting to control a massive lump in my chest I leaned back into my seat. I was desperately trying to subdue a massive to cry. When would I see Mom and Dad again? I was even worried about not seeing Chance the Superbrat again. That shows how desperate I was getting.

Suddenly, a loud BANG sounded just under my seat. I was more on edge now than I had been a minute ago. I heard Jones mutter his first words since he'd got in the car. "Flat tyre." Smith nodded, and abruptly turned in.

They both got out and examined the tyre. From the murmuring I assumed that it must be flat. And they evidently didn't have a spare.

I heard Smith's voice. "Guard the Andalite. I'll go and get one." _Andalite_? What? Talk about crazy! I knew for a fact that I hadn't made that one up.

Jones sat in the dirt, leaning against the car and watching Smith disappear up the way we had just come. Frantically my mind raced. How was I going to back out of this one? I was a prisoner by anyone's standards, and there seemed to be nothing I could do about it. The car had been designed well – very well.

I examined the mesh. The catch was on the other side. A fully-grown man would have a problem getting to it, but a teenager might have slightly better prospects. Gripping my lip between my teeth nervously, I cast a look towards Jones. I couldn't see him, so I supposed he was still leaning against my door. Tentatively I poked a finger through the mesh and groped for the catch. I almost had it when my fingers slipped away again. Almost… missed. Almost… missed.

Eventually, I had my fingers in the right place and I could scrape the edge of the catch with my fingertips. Just a few more millimetres. Just a little further… Just enough so I could push it open.

I had it! Slowly, in case I lost my grip again, I pushed the catch. Once it was open I could push the whole mesh back.

I winced as the runners squeaked loudly. No sound from Jones. Had he fallen asleep? I doubted it, but hoped feverishly.

Reaching forward towards the dashboard, I could see that the radio had been ripped from its socket. They were taking no chances.

Quickly, I found the button and pushed it. The central locking released the back doors. Opening the door Jones wasn't leaning against I jumped out and hit the ground running. Apparently, Jones had been dozing. He wasn't exactly ready for my escape. I was heading toward a cluster of trees before he had even noticed I was out of the car. I heard his shout of, "Stop Andalite!" and instinctively hit the deck just in time for something to go whooshing over my head. I went to jump up again and paused when I saw the round scorch mark in the tree in front of me. That was no ordinary handgun.

Suddenly realising that now was definitely not a good time to study trees I hauled butt through them like nothing you've ever seen before. Jones was surprisingly fast once you took his size into account. And I was no sprinter.

Somehow though I managed to loose him in amongst all the trees. Panting, I leaned up against one and looked towards the sky. It was turning a definite pink in the setting sun.

Gradually my breathing slowed enough for me to think rationally. What had just happened? I had obviously been targeted. They wouldn't take a chance like that unless it was definitely me they were after. But why? What did I have that they would want? My family wasn't particularly rich; in fact Mom was unemployed right now. So it couldn't be money. I wasn't exactly a special child, your regular teenager. Messy bedroomed, computer gaming freakiness included. So it wasn't that. Something to do with Dad? I wasn't entirely sure what Dad actually did, but it wasn't military intelligence or anything flashy, so information wasn't an issue. I couldn't think of anything else. Unless…

Could it have anything to do with that wacko word? Yeerk? It seemed amazing that anyone could be that bothered. That was the best reason I could come up with, but that's not saying much. The rest of them were pretty lame too.

Silently I crept through the trees. The next time I looked the sun had completely set. Mom and Chance were going to be so worried about me. And Dad too if they'd managed to get hold of him. I smiled faintly as I imagined Mom trying to explain away my disappearance in a police car. Chance's first reaction would probably be one of complete awe. His brother got taken away in a police car. And he didn't have to do anything wrong either. Then he would get steadily more worried, not wanting to ask Mom because she would be looking worried enough already. Then he would ask her anyway. Mom, being blunt, would tell him the truth and be brave. I get that quality from my mother. I don't believe in spinning the yarn. Let them have the fleece and spin it themselves. Maybe they'd already phoned Dad. The police would definitely know by now, although if a policeman came along to try and help me now, I wasn't sure how I would react.

I must have crept on through those trees for hours. Eventually though I came across a main road. Maybe I could hitchhike. Mom wouldn't have minded under the circumstances. I glanced around. They couldn't have followed me this far without acting could they? It looked like a short distance to my escape.

It turned out to be too far.

"Surprise," said a voice behind me in the darkness. Before I could react, a bag was pulled over my head. As I struggled, my hands were duct-taped behind my back. Then something cracked into the back of my skull. I don't even remember hitting the floor.


	6. Chapter Six

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Chapter 6 (Jake)

Now we definitely had a bad situation. It was the next night and we were all in Cassie's barn again, trying to come to some agreement about what to do about this Joseph character. "There is no way I'm going to let this one slide." That was Lee. She was stationed on her usual bale of hay, and she jumped into the discussion headfirst. "He wasn't in school today, and that suggests bad things to me."

"Maybe you just didn't see him," said Rachel helpfully. "You don't know which lessons he's in with you do you?"

"I had English today. And I know he's in my English class."

"Okay," said Marco, "what if he's just off sick? Or what if the slug in his head's away getting it's butt whipped by Visser 3?"

"He's not a…"

"Controller? How do you know that Lee? You only knew the guy for less than an hour." Marco was getting pretty rattled by this. He hadn't cracked a single joke since they caught up with me yesterday. Funny or otherwise. "You can't tell."

Lee stood up and turned on Marco. "You think I don't know that Marco? You honestly think I'm completely oblivious to the fact that they could be almost anywhere? You have a lot to learn about me – Shorty."

Rachel and Cassie pulled faces to indicate _Ouch_! Tobias's wing went over his head in the same gesture. Rachel put a hand on Lee's shoulder and I put one on Marco's. I heard Rachel's solemn sounding whisper. "That was a nice one Lee, but you pulled it at completely the wrong time." I glared at her and she shrugged.

"Okay, this isn't what we set out to do." I glanced first at Marco and then at Lee. "We're going to get nowhere if we break into a brawl."

The possible fight was interrupted at this point by the arrival of Erek King. He's a Chee. Meaning that he's an Android. Only he uses holograms to look like a normal boy. 

Erek walked in. Looking like a boy. Looking like a boy with a very odd expression on his face.

"You two aren't about to hit each other, are you?" He looked first at Marco and then back at Lee. I couldn't blame him. Marco? In a fist fight? Not exactly Marco's scene.

Ax, who was present in his human morph, was the only one to remember why we were all actually here. "Do you have any information Erek? May-shun. In-four-ma-shun." Ax has this habit of playing with words in his human morph. Andalites don't have mouths you see. It gets slightly irritating after a while.

"What? Oh yeah. Sure." Erek finally wrenched his gaze away from Lee and Marco and concentrated on why he was here. "There's big word going round that Visser 3 has one of the 'Andalite Bandits'. But," he continued, glancing round, "You all seem to be here. So I'm not exactly sure what's going on."

Lee opened her mouth to speak, but held her tongue. I took up the conversation. "There's a kid from our school has disappeared." I explained the connection to Erek. "He wasn't in school today and we think they may have taken him, mistaking him for one of us."

Erek looked thoughtful for a second. "He could be a Controller you know. Maybe the host gained control for a second and shouted that one word."

I glanced at Marco. He had a smug expression on his face, and Lee was seething silently. "Apparently, it wasn't blurted," I concluded. "He thought about it before he actually answered."

"So," said Erek, voicing his thoughts slowly and deliberately. "He's either a good Yeerk, one opposed to the whole earth domination thing, or we have someone who knows about the Yeerks, but not how dangerous they are. Either way he's innocent."

"Either way he's innocent," I repeated in agreement.

After about half an hour's discussion we'd still failed to come up with an answer. Lee and Marco were still on their original teams, Rachel had sort of sided with Lee, and everyone else was still impartial.

I pedalled home fast that night, considering that the skies were threatening to open up. It didn't slowly drizzle, it literally opened up, and completely drenched me. I was dripping by the time I got home.

Tom was sitting in the front room when I got in. "Hey Midget," he called. He saw how wet I was and laughed at me. A big brother type of laugh. Not an alien invader type of laugh. "You go swimming or something?"

I shook my head and the droplets flew all over him. "Pedalled through a storm."

I took the stairs two at a time, making the excuse that I needed to change or I would catch my death of cold. Really, I just needed to get away from Tom. Because I knew it wasn't Tom anymore. That comment about my swimming is what Tom would've said, I didn't doubt that. But Tom was a Controller. The Yeerk in his head was completely controlling him. My brother was trapped in a tiny corner of his own brain and he couldn't get out. What a thought.

I had trouble falling asleep that night. Sleep just refused to come. I lay on my back and stared at the ceiling. My thoughts swayed to Joseph. What was happening to him right now? Was he scared? Would they infest him straight away, or would they wait until the two-hour limit to see if they could get him to morph by himself? But he couldn't morph, or so we thought, so they would have a long wait. If he didn't know anything, he was probably going nuts with all the words they would use, or refer to him by.

I sighed. When we voted, I knew which way I would vote. I just hoped he was still alive to be rescued.


	7. Chapter Seven

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Chapter 7 (Joe)

Actually, at that point I was still unconscious. I can only assume I was in the boot of the patrol car, since I came to a few times in a dark, cramped space, but for all I could tell you, I could have been in someone's tool shed. I was never able to stay awake long enough to actually take notice of much before I went under again. Did they drug me? I couldn't tell you. I don't remember them drugging me, but like I said, my memory of that particular road trip was already pretty sketchy. It could have happened.

When I finally came to properly, the first thing I realised was that I was completely free to move around. My wrists and ankles were free. I forced myself into a sitting position and rubbed my eyes wearily. For a blissful second I forgot that I was now a kidnap victim and thought I was in my bed at home. No such luck.

Looking about, I saw I was surrounded by bare, concrete walls. It could have been someone's basement. I just let my head droop between my knees. What was the point of trying to escape? They'd just catch me again. They did it before.

Suddenly, above my head, there was a crackle. Like an intercom. "Andalite. Give us no reason to harm you, or we will do so without hesitation."

"Anda…_what_? What have I ever done to you guys?" Did these guys really believe all this alien stuff? Had I stepped on some secret word and they thought I was some part of this nutso game? Well, they had a surprise coming to them.

"Silence!" I scowled at the floor, having nothing else to scowl at. The speaker continued, "If you attempt to morph, we have Hork-Bajir outside who would be glad to step in and hand your lifeless body to Visser 3."

"Visser 3?" I stood up, finally getting towards the end of my tether. "What the hell is wrong with you guys? Do you think I'm some kind of alien come to kill you all?" I was yelling now, and my voice echoed throughout my small prison.

I waited for the speaker to speak again, but to my immense surprise the door flew open with a bang and someone stepped through it. Not Jones or Smith, but Chapman. Vice Principle Chapman! I mean hey! Nobody told me Chapman was going to be here! A teacher working at my school! Oh, man. Heaven help me.

He glared at me and I glared back at him. "Chapman?"

"Say nothing to me!" His voice burned with something I'd never heard before. Hate. Pure and utter hatred. I would have stepped backwards, but I had my back to the wall. There was nowhere to go. "Don't speak, you Andalite filth!" He spat the words as though I was lower than scum.

I raised an eyebrow. "And I'm happy to see you too."

He raised the gun he held. He gripped it so firmly that his knuckles were white, and held it trained at my forehead. "I'm warning you. The Visser wants you alive, but he would just as readily take you dead." He let go of a nervous chuckle. "Put up your hands."

Nervously I raised my hands to my head and laced my fingers behind my neck, all the while keeping my eyes trained on that gun. He wasn't so wacko that he'd shoot me – was he? I honestly didn't want to be here long enough to find out.

Still keeping the gun trained on me, Chapman turned to the door and called, "In!" I could, _so_ imagine him calling a kid into his office that way. Who was to come in, I had no idea. Until a few seconds later, that is.

I instinctively flattened against the wall when the 'Hork-Bajir', as Chapman had so nicely put it, came lumbering through the door. They were like… I can't really compare them to anything you'd have ever seen before. They stood upright on these freaky looking legs that looked like they had once belonged to some poor mutant dog. Like the knees had been wrenched back the wrong way. They had feet like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Deadly, as though they had been built to kill. Or scare the living daylights out of some poor defenceless kid. And then there were the arms. The arms… they looked like they could reach out and grab my throat from where they were standing. At least, it seemed that way to me. You wouldn't think these guys needed much balance, but they had this huge, scaly tail too.

Oh, did I mention the blades? Evil-looking horn-blades growing out of the freaky knees, ankles, elbows, wrists and the tails. All together, a scary species, don't you think?

I shivered.

"You've never seen Hork-Bajir before, Andalite?" Said Chapman cruelly. He said the word 'Andalite' like it was a curse. Apparently the 'Andalites' were a problem for Chapman and the… 'Hork-Bajir'. Scary.

He went on, "You must have led a sheltered life then Andalite, if you have never seen a Hork-Bajir. Or are you just afraid?"

I was tempted to say something sarcastic, but stopped myself. I was willing to bet that sarcasm was going to get me killed here. And since there were three living weapons right there in the room…

Chapman motioned for the Hork-Bajir to stay where they were and came up to me. He paused beside me for a moment, as though contemplating whether or not he would be safe doing whatever he was about to do next. Having, it seemed, decided, he grabbed a handful of my hair. He yanked me so that I fell onto my knees and then he crouched down and whispered in my ear, "We know where the bandits are Andalite. We know who they are. We know everything about them right down to where they live and what their surnames are. Give us some confirmation and we may let you live." With that he threw my head back against the wall and stood up. "How about it?"

I put a hand to the back of my head. "I can't tell you what I don't know. I'm just a kid."

"Your _morph_ is 'just a kid'. You are an Andalite, are you not?" I could tell it was a rhetorical question. He wasn't waiting for an answer. I answered anyway.

"I don't know what an Andalite is. I didn't even know the word existed until about five minutes ago, and you told me that! Ask me to spell it and you'd be disappointed."

"I didn't ask you to spell it." Chapman paused. "How do you know the word Yeerk if you don't know anything else I'm asking you about?"

I sighed. "I made that word up in my English class this morning. It doesn't mean anything. I don't know anything."

"Face it Andalite. You revealed yourself. You made a mess of it. You'll have to demorph within the two-hour time limit. The Visser is going to kill you all."

With that, Chapman and his cronies walked out of the room. Leaning against the wall I pondered. What had just happened? I made up a word, got kidnapped and threatened, by what? Aliens? Yeah, right. But then, stranger things are supposed to have happened around here. It was just the feeling you get from a place like this. It leaves you feeling weird.

The last straw was when he came back in and turned out the light. I heard him slam the door behind him and I heard a key grate in the lock. I'm not afraid of the dark or anything, but I just don't like not being able to see three feet in front of me when there's some wacko wandering around with a gun.


	8. Chapter Eight

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Chapter 8 (Jake)

I tossed and turned that night. Tangling myself up in the sheets, and then having to untangle myself in case I sweated so much I became dehydrated. I suppose, although I feel guilty admitting it, I hardly thought about Joseph. There'd be plenty of time to think about him tomorrow.

Eventually, I somehow managed to doze off and entered a hazardous plane of dreams and nightmares. Except that I never got that far that night. 

The second my feet hit solid ground, I had to put out my arms to stop myself falling. An immense feeling of nausea swept over me, and I fought to stay standing.

"Jake?" I turned to see Rachel looking uncertainly about.

"Yeah," I muttered, "I'm here."

Glancing over either shoulder I saw everyone was there. Marco, Ax, Lee and Tobias to my right, Cassie and Rachel to my left.

"Well, this is nice," commented Marco, glancing about like I had just done. "The Animorphs all out for a little midnight partying. But I have a distinct feeling that my old man's going to have a problem with me being whisked off to another plane of existence after about… say midnight? So, what's say we pack this up and leave?"

Lee and Rachel turned to him simultaneously. "Lead the way."

They both glanced at each other past Marco. Rachel grinned broadly and Lee returned it.

Marco looked at first one and then the other. "Xena and… what? Gabrielle?"

Cassie's face was worried. Ax and Tobias didn't look too happy about being here either. I knew how they felt. I took a tentative step forwards. "Hello?"

Is anyone here? called Tobias, ruffling his feathers uneasily.

I AM HERE.

We all stood in a stunned silence. The Ellimist. He wasn't there, but he was. He was no more than a voice, but we knew he was there.

Ax was the first to pick up enough courage to address the Ellimist. For what reason have we been summoned?

I HAVE CALLED UPON YOU TO ASK A FAVOUR.

Marco had adopted his usual let's-make-this-funny attitude. "No way, my dad's made me swear never to do any favours for Ellimists."

Cassie shot a warning look in Marco's direction, before addressing the Ellimist. "What kind of favour?"

I WISH YOU TO HELP ME RETRIEVE MY SON.

Lee turned to me. "Ellimists have children?"

I shrugged. "Apparently."

I AM AFRAID CRAYAK MAY FIND HIM BEFORE I DO.

Crayak. Another being, an evil being who rivalled even the Ellimist's power. Really, really evil. Scary evil.

"You mean you don't know where he is?" Rachel's voice held more than a slight trace of disbelief. I knew what she meant. Most dads tend to know where their kids are, never mind some guy who could be identified as having god-like powers.

I HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF HIS WHEREABOUTS, admitted the Ellimist sadly. I SENT HIM INTO HIDING AS A CHILD. HE HAS HIDDEN WELL. TOO WELL, I'M AFRAID.

"How are we supposed to find him?" Asked Lee, a puzzled look on her face. That's the question I would have asked. I waited impatiently for an answer.

A sigh vibrated through each one of us before the Ellimist spoke again. HE IS HIDING ON EARTH. AS A HUMAN BOY.

"What does he look like?" asked Rachel.

I DO NOT KNOW.

"How are we supposed to find this guy if we don't even know what he looks like?" I was having a hard week. It made me a bit snappy, even with a being who could say… kill me or something.

YOU WILL FIND HIM, the Ellimist assured me. IN FACT, he continued, YOU HAVE ALREADY MET HIM. It was like he was standing in front of me and had fingers outstretched towards Lee and Marco. He wasn't physically standing there, but you could… feel, I guess… the indication towards them.

They both got slightly fidgety. Marco was looking anywhere but towards me, and Lee was suddenly examining her feet. Then, like she'd had an electric shock or something, Lee looked up. "Joseph!" she exclaimed. "Is it Joseph?" She was looking about since she couldn't see who she was addressing and, let's face it, the Ellimist was something new for her.

POSSIBLY. Not much of a response.

"Well, that's helpful," muttered Marco. "Can't you be slightly more specific?"

I ONLY KNOW WHAT I HAVE TOLD YOU.

Tobias gained our attention by ruffling his feathers loudly. Can't you even tell us which part of the world he's in? We can't even hope to find something if we don't know where he is. It's a needle in a haystack situation here.

I ONLY KNOW WHAT I HAVE TOLD YOU, repeated the Ellimist. BUT I HAVE ONE MORE THING TO SHOW YOU.

Like magic, the scene around us changed. Like ripples in a pool. When the ripples finally settled into calm I had a chance to look about. It was like I was in someone's basement. Four bare concrete walls penned us in, and I was instantly alert. I guess, once you've been taken by surprise more times than you care to count you tend to become a little more wary.

Cassie turned to me. "Where are we?"

"I have no idea. Any guesses?"

No one answered me. The only sound was the Ellimist's booming voice. I DO NOT KNOW WHERE THIS PLACE IS. I ONLY KNOW THAT MY SON IS HERE.

"But, if you brought us here, shouldn't you know where it is anyway?" Lee glanced about warily as she spoke, as though she was waiting for something to leap out of the shadows and attack us.

I SHOULD, BUT I DO NOT. The Ellimist was starting to sound perplexed at all our questions. Can't say that I blame him. THERE ARE THINGS THAT EVEN I AM NOT CAPABLE OF.

Marco's answer to that was a low, awed whistle.

Taking a tentative step forward, I felt my way along the walls. Even though we knew this kid was human, I didn't really know what to expect. I mean, we were talking half-Ellimist here. The Ellimist can do things like stop time, and whisk people off to other planes of existence, so what was this kid going to be capable of?

Carefully, I walked alongside the wall. It was cold beneath my fingertips. And dank. I tried to take another step forward, but my foot kicked something. Something warm.

Joseph groaned wearily, and then seemed to doze off again. "Well," I whispered, "We've found him. What next?"

I heard Lee's voice through the darkness, "Wake him up."

And if he's a Controller…? Pressed Ax. What then?

HE WILL REMEMBER NOTHING OF THIS EXCHANGE.

I heard Ax pawing at the ground with a hoof. Ellimists and Andalites never got on well before now, why should it be any different now? I think that Ax was also a little ticked off at having his opinion brushed aside so easily.

"Well," I whispered, barely being able to make out everyone's faces in the gloom. "I suppose that answers that question." I bent down and shook Joseph awake.


	9. Chapter Nine

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Chapter 9 (Joe)

I think I was dreaming about being chased through the trees by a quiet Tyrannosaurus Rex with a laser gun, when he shook me awake. It only took me a second to remember where I was. I sat, rigid, waiting for him to make the next move.

There was a pause, as though he didn't know what to say. Then, "Are you okay?"

I sat for a moment, not saying anything, trying to see who was talking to me. A tall boy, about my own age, looked back at me. I tried to size him up, and he looked like he was doing the same.

Another voice from the darkness, "Is he even awake?"

The boy answered, "Yeah, he's awake."

"Who are you?" I asked him the question, and he took a few seconds to reply.

"A friend." What was with all this cloak and dagger stuff? Was he afraid I would find out something I shouldn't know? Was he part of this wacko game too? Good guys versus bad guys, or something? "Joseph," he continued, "Do you have any idea where you are? Where this is?"

"No. I was hoping you could tell me." When he said nothing, I pressed the question. "Where are we?"

"I don't know."

"But if you got here…"

He held up a hand to silence me. "It's a long story. Too long to tell you right now." I looked to him sceptically. "You'll have to trust me," he told me solemnly.

I sighed. It wasn't like I had a choice. "Okay," I muttered, "I'm trusting you. I have no idea why, but I am."

Then the boy was all business again. "Is there any way out?"

I shook my head. "If there was, do you think I would still be here?"

"Good point." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Have you seen anyone that you know, or can put a name to?"

"Chapman, and these two cops called Smith and Jones." I was expecting him to be disbelieving when I told him about Chapman, but he just nodded knowingly.

"Is that all?" He asked me.

"That's all." I nodded.

"Joseph," he said, if a little awkwardly, "we probably don't have that much time. We're going to try and find you, is there anything else we can use to find out where you are?"

My brow furrowed in thought. "We were headed out of town."

"In a car?" I nodded. "How long were you in the car for?"

"I don't know. I was unconscious most of the way here." I sat for a moment working out the times. "After quarter of an hour, we were on a long, straight road in the middle of nowhere. Go through the woods by the side of it on foot for a few hours, and you come onto a highway."

I know it. Not far out of town. I had no idea why I could hear those words in my head. The words just popped up. I guess I would have normally panicked, but I felt strangely calm, like I heard that sort of thing every day, like I was used to it.

Suddenly, the door creaked. A ray of light fell over the boy's face. He squinted, as though he was trying to see past it. And then I blacked out – again.

The door flew open with a bang and I jerked violently in fright. I must have dozed off. Something important had just happened. What was it? A dream or something? I tried to reach out and grasp the last wisps of it before I lost it entirely. Too late, I just couldn't remember it.

I successfully clocked myself on the concrete wall behind me before I even thought of focusing on the door. I wish I had clocked myself a little harder. Then I would be unconscious and I wouldn't have to try and interpret the deer-human-scorpion thing in front of me. Think blue centaur. Then think scorpion tail sticking dangerously out of its butt. Big blade on the end of it. You're getting closer. Then imagine four stalks each carrying an eyeball. See why I was severely freaked out?

We glared at each other for a while. All four of its stalks were concentrated on me. The Hork-Bajir on each flank were waiting for their orders.

Say something.

I jumped. That voice was so authoritative. And, in a way it wasn't a voice at all. More like a thought. Someone was _thinking_ to me. _Voices in my head?_ I thought. _Oh boy, I'm really losing it._

It continued. You're in a morph, you can communicate in regular thought speech.

"What?"

What are you? An _aristh_? He spat the last word, like it was a dirty word.

"A what?"

The blade sliced through the air faster than I could blink and settled itself against my throat. SAY THAT WORD ONE MORE TIME AND I'LL KILL YOU!

I gulped. I felt my Adam's Apple fighting for a place in my throat against my heart. Neither would shift. He moved it a hair's-width nearer my throat, and a tiny river of blood trickled down my neck. A warning by anyone's standards.

Eventually the blue alien spoke again. I have little time for your games Andalite. We know where all your friends are.

"What friends?" I quipped. I instantly saw that it was a mistake. With lightening speed he slammed the side of the blade against my head. I sprawled to my right, barely conscious. With one hoofed foot he nailed my left wrist, then he slowly, almost ceremoniously, brought the blade towards my hand. It hovered, just centimetres from taking my hand from my wrist.

Tell me what I want to know.

"I don't know what you want to know!" I was almost crying at this point. I turned my face to the wall so that he wouldn't see the tears. Any signs of weakness would be very bad.

He saw my move and guessed. Are you unhappy Andalite? You don't want to show weakness? Well, I'll have to give you something to cry about. He pressed the blade closer to my hand, targeting my left pinkie. The blood started trickling freely down my finger. I could feel it. He pressed harder and harder, slowly severing the finger. He didn't stop when he got to the bone. It was like a knife through butter. It was so painful. Imagine someone cutting off your finger with a Stanley knife while you knew they were doing it. I had to bite my lip hard to stop myself screaming. He wasn't even sawing at my hand, just pressing, cutting cleanly. Are you ready to tell me yet? With a final surge of pressure, I felt the finger come away from my hand all together. I sobbed feverishly, and tried to pull the hand back. But he kept the hoof firmly planted on it. Will you tell me?

"No!" I choked. I was sick of playing games and wanted to bail right there. But apparently there was more fun to be had.

Then, he said with relish, I believe it's time for infestation.


	10. Chapter Ten

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Chapter 10 (Cassie)

Suddenly, the door creaked. A ray of light fell over Jake's face. He squinted, as though trying to see past it. Then, everything stopped. Nothing moved. The door stopped opening, the dust particles in the air, illuminated by the light from the half-open door, stopped dancing. Dead halt. Silence.

I looked back at Joseph. Whatever this was, he was caught up in it too. It looked like he had blacked out or something.

We were all looking at Jake with the same expression on our faces. Complete confusion. Probably Lee more than most. Her Andalite might have told her everything about the Yeerk invasion, but I don't suppose he had given her any hands-on experience.

"What just happened?" She was almost shaking. But you see, we'd seen the Ellimist stop time before. Not really a big thing anymore.

"He's just stopped time. Nothing to worry about." That was Marco. He spoke in an off hand manner, so you couldn't tell if he was innocently telling Lee what she wanted to know or making fun of her asking the question.

Helloooo, called Tobias. Anyone home?

I heard Rachel mutter sourly, "Nope. Now could we all go home?"

The Ellimist either didn't hear her or decided to ignore it. I'd go for the latter.

I shot bolt upright in bed. I was in a cold sweat, and I was shaking uncontrollably. The sun was starting to peep through the curtains, and my clock told me that it was ten in the morning. I quickly pulled some clothes out of my wardrobe and put them on before running headlong down the stairs. If it wasn't just some meaningless dream, I was guessing I wouldn't be the first one in the barn.

And I guessed right. Ax and Tobias were already in the barn when I got there. Ax in his human morph as always. Rachel and Jake arrived shortly after me, and then Marco and Lee drifted in shortly after one another. I looked around at everyone. "I'm guessing we're all here for the same reason?"

"We all had that weird dream?" I watched as everyone nodded in agreement to Marco's guess.

"Just to make sure, that was Joseph wasn't it? I mean, I've never met the guy before." Jake was looking pointedly at Lee and Marco as he asked the question. Nobody else knew what Joseph looked like.

They nodded grimly. "I'm still not sure what to make of it," said Marco uneasily. "But if the Ellimist's involved I'd say it's got to be fairly important."

What's all this about him being the Ellimist's son? He looks like a normal kid to me. Tobias paused as though he was thinking. Unless he's half and half or something.

"Half Ellimist?" Jake was deep in thought for a moment. "Ax? Is that possible?"

"It is possible. Two species can mate to have offspring that resembles both. An example would be your lion and tiger. If they were to mate they would produce what you call a Liger."

"Or a Tigon," I put in. Ax nodded. "But he doesn't resemble the Ellimist at all," I pointed out. "He looks like a regular human boy."

"Maybe he does not resemble the Ellimist in looks," confirmed Ax thoughtfully. "But maybe he resembles him in other ways."

"Like what?" Marco sounded sceptical. "Are you telling me that he could have super-powers or something?"

Far from the laughter he was expecting, Ax said solemnly, "Quite possibly."

Marco frowned. "Okay, that was _way_ weirder than I was expecting."

"Does that part actually matter?" Demanded Lee forcefully, "How are we planning to get him out of there?"

Anyone up for a little morning flying? Tobias stopped preening himself and looked to Jake. He nodded.

Let me tell you this right now, morphing is _weird_. It never happens the same way twice but it always manages to look just as gross. I know, I've watched the others morph often enough, and it isn't pretty.

We were all stood there, stripped down to our morphing outfits, about to turn into birds. Try to tell me that that doesn't sound completely crazy.

Watching the feathers form is always interesting, weird but interesting. My skin started bunching up, like lots of small mountains. They bunched further and further and then eventually spread out so that they looked like pink feathers. My mouth was, by this time, half way melted into a beak. My teeth were being sucked into my gums. And I hadn't shrunk at all. Suddenly, without warning, the ground shot up to meet me. It was like I was falling without my feet ever leaving the ground. The skin around my feet became suddenly tougher, and talons sprouted from my toes, which had already melted together. My fingers became the end feathers of a wing. I stretched my wings and flapped them cautiously. I was an osprey, also known as _Pandion haliaetus_. Go ahead, check it out if you don't believe me!

So, let's look at the facts. I was a girl who could turn into a bird, amongst many other things, and how did I spend my free time? Running air surveillance.


	11. Chapter Eleven

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Chapter 11 (Joe)

We stood at the end of the pier, a Hork-Bajir flanking me at either side, each having a secure grip on one of my wrists. I was _not_ getting out of this one easily. There were sounds of water, like waves lapping at the shore. That was the only pleasant sound. Shouts and screams of pure horror filled the air. I think I could safely assume that nobody liked what was going down here. Ahead of us, a woman was being infested, a woman about the same age as my mother. She was kicking and screaming, but it made no difference, they just pushed her head under anyway. After a few seconds they pulled her up roughly by a handful of her hair. I could still see the grey slug slithering into her ear. With a squelching sound, it finally disappeared. The woman calmly stood straight and walked, unaided, down the pier.

I felt the grip on my wrists tighten. My turn. I was quickly and efficiently walked down the pier. Taking a quick, desperate glance to either side, I saw that several Controllers had turned out to watch. This had to be some event for them. Before I realised it, we'd reached the end of the pier. Slowly, for the first time, it finally dawned on me what they were about to do to me. They were going to make me a slave. I was just going to get up and walk back down that pier. I wasn't going to be in control of myself any more.

Desperately I struggled against the grip of the Hork-Bajir. I yelled and screamed, but they didn't hear me and I don't know what I said. But it didn't work. Grabbing a handful of hair roughly, just like they had with the woman before me, they shoved my head beneath the surface of the water.

Imagine someone pushing your head beneath the surface of a swimming pool. Well, that's what it was like at first. No problem, if I held my breath I'd be fine. That's when it started. Pain like nothing I'd ever felt before, even during the removal of my finger. Like someone had a drill to my ear and was trying to find out if it was true that my brain was the size of a small peanut.

As it shot through my skull, the pain forced me to take a convulsive gasp. I'm sure I inhaled half that Yeerk pool. And they still had my head under the water. I remember thinking, _Let me pass out, please let me pass out_. I knew exactly what was happening too. I could feel my brain slowly loosing contact with my body. And the pain… Oh man, if you think you've felt pain before, I suggest you take a trip to your local Yeerk pool to find out what pain really is.

Then, without any warning, the pain stopped. The only reminder was a dull ache, like a strong headache.

They almost ripped half the hair out of my head when they pulled me back out of the water. I lay where they had dropped me, hacking and gagging from the inhaled water. I coughed and coughed… and then I think I coughed some more.

I tried to get to my feet. It wasn't working. _Oh heck_! I thought, _They've got me good this time_. Anything to let me know I was still me. It was all a huge practical joke, and everyone was going to yell _Gotcha_! I was still holding onto that slim hope through the whole thing. Even after what I had seen here, what I had heard and thought about, I was still hoping it was this huge joke. I was hoping too much.

Joseph, said a sinister voice in my head. We have a lot to find out about you Joseph. More voices in my head? It didn't sound an awful lot like Visser Three. I wasn't so scared by this new voice.

You will learn to be afraid of me Joseph. What? Had this thing read my mind or something? It laughed. Think Joey, think. I'm inside your head now, watching what you're thinking, watching everything you've ever thought. I'm in charge here and you can do nothing about it. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to stand up and wave a banner humming the national anthem. I wanted my body back. I tried to open my mouth and say my own name. Nothing. I couldn't do it, no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't do it. It laughed. Now I knew this was no joke.

Don't struggle Joseph. No host has ever taken on a Yeerk and won.

Get out of my head you… you… SLUG! I yelled. Yeah, I know. What an insult. But give me a break! I'd had a rough day.

I had never felt real hate before, not until then. I wanted to kill it. I have never _never_ wanted to deliberately kill anything in my life, human or otherwise.

I wouldn't count on it. This is such an interesting mind, why would I leave? It sneered at me from inside my mind. The only place I knew my secrets were really safe. They weren't safe there any more.

I know everything about you Joseph. Anything I want to know. Your brain is like a computer to me. I look up what I need. I use you.

I won't let you!

Oh no? I could feel it rooting through my brain like it was a phone book. Taking what it needed to torment me. I know for a fact that you're afraid of spiders.

Spiders? Oh yeah. Spiders, big time. The little ones didn't bother me. The bigger ones scared me senseless. It's just the way they move. If they didn't have eight legs, just six maybe, it wouldn't be so bad. Ohhh. Creepy little buggers.

Just the bigger ones though. You don't like the way they move. I could feel the smug feeling it was having, teasing me like this. Laughing silently inside my head.

Only a miracle could save me now.


	12. Chapter Twelve

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Chapter 12 (Rachel)

Flying is great. And I'm not talking about aeroplane type flying either. Being a bird is like being released from prison. Released from the ground. Defying gravity is so great. But we had a job to do and flying was not going to be my main order of business today.

We must have looked like an odd assortment. A bald eagle (me), a peregrine falcon (Jake), two ospreys (Cassie and Marco), a eurasian kestrel (Lee), a red tail hawk (Tobias) and a northern harrier (Ax). We were flying about half a mile apart in case a rouge bird watcher was out this early. Always pays to be cautious of these things.

Are we there yet? Marco. How long did it take you to guess? My wings are tired.

Ax? The reason Jake was asking Ax, is that Ax has an in built watch. It's Ax's job to keep track of time.

About twenty of your minutes Prince Jake.

Stop calling me prince. I'm not sure why he bothers to tell Ax that anymore. On the Andalite home planet, high-ranking warriors are called 'princes'. Ax has taken Jake has his prince. I'm still trying to decide whether that is a good thing.

Hey Ax, called Marco. They're your minutes too. We're all on good old earth together here. Another on going joke. Marco drives me nuts sometimes.

We're almost there, Tobias assured us.

But didn't he say fifteen minutes? Lee still gets a bit nervous when we go on long range missions.

How sure could he have been? asked Tobias. And we aren't going anywhere near the sixty miles an hour I would imagine the Controllers were driving at. Tobias made sure he spoke in a way that wouldn't hurt Lee's feelings too much.

For about five minutes we all made small talk. Trying to pass the time. Eventually we came onto a main road. Here it is, announced Tobias triumphantly. There's the woods he was talking about.

How slow was he going? I asked. It wouldn't have taken me half an hour to get through those trees.

It would have been dark. He was trying to get away from someone. He would not have been concentrating on going in a straight line. I took Ax's point on board.

So, what exactly are we looking for?

Something that might tell us where Joseph is, muttered Jake.

So… What exactly are we looking for?

He hasn't a clue, piped up Marco.

Are we headed down? I asked.

Yeah, I suppose we are. I could tell that Jake had no idea what we were going to do once we got down there, but we all landed a few feet after each other and demorphed.

My human eyes seemed remarkably dull after the sharpness of the eagle's eyes. But my poor human vision was still good enough to spot the perfectly round scorch mark in a nearby tree. I stared at it for a moment, wide eyed. Then I shouted for everyone else.

Cassie traced the mark in the tree with a finger. Jake's brow was furrowed in thought. Lee was watching Cassie. Ax, forgetting about his human expression, didn't really look like he was thinking at all. Tobias, not being capable of any expression anyway just looked the same as he always did, angry and fierce. Marco looked puzzled. A thought flicked across my mind. _I wonder if he's feeling sorry for Joseph or if he thinks Cassie's mourning the poor tree_. Because Cassie, being Cassie, probably would feel the tree had been hurt by the Dracon blast. That's what it was. Someone or something had been in the range of a Dracon blast. I just hoped they'd managed to get out of the way fast enough.

"What now? We know _someone's_ been shot at."

"I guess we go for a walk in the woods," said Jake. Just by looking at his face I could tell he was definitely worried. He'd barely met this guy, but he was concerned for his safety. That suited me just fine. I was worried too.

We decided not to morph. Joe wouldn't have been in a morph, and the best way to catch someone was to think like them. But nothing turned up. We were about to go back to the beginning and try going wolf to see if we could find any smells. But Tobias had spotted something in the undergrowth.

Rachel? What's that down by your foot?

I bent down and picked it up. It could have been anything, a gum wrapper maybe. But then, your average gum wrappers don't have directions written on them. Or street names and house numbers.

I handed it to Jake. "I'm guessing," he said, "That we want to be going here."

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Marco asked in mock surprise. "I thought we wanted to be going the other way." He studied the paper over Jake's shoulder and then pointed at it thoughtfully. "Mind you, I hear they do great burgers in one of the places down there. Yeah, we definitely want to be going there."

"Ha, ha, ha," said Jake flatly.

"Was that an attempt at humour?" Ax looked puzzled.

"A pretty lame attempt, but yeah. An attempt."

"Tomorrow's Saturday. We can check this out tomorrow." We made plans for Saturday. Not going to the mall or playing video games. No, we had to save an alien's son on Saturdays.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

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Chapter 13 (Joe)

I was mad, furious and… extremely worried. It sneered at me again. Then its mood changed. I could feel it sifting through my mind and making me relive things I never wanted to remember. But it wasn't finding what it wanted. And it was starting to panic. Fine, let it panic. Made no difference to me. I sat patiently in that little corner of my mind waiting for the Yeerk to understand what I'd been telling them all along. I didn't know anything.

I was getting different moods and emotions from the Yeerk. Not thoughts or memories, like he could from me, but he couldn't hide his moods from me.

You realise little boy, that we will both die at the end of the Visser's tail blade?

I shrugged mentally. I guess so. I'm not sure why I accepted that so readily. I believed him, oh man I totally believed him. But somehow, I don't know. It began to seem more and more impossible. Nothing was impossible. I'd decided to accept everything. There was nothing else I could do. Was there?

No, announced the Yeerk flatly, having followed my thoughts. You are right to accept it. You cannot fight me and it would be foolish to try.

Then suddenly we stood up. "I have control of the boy." Wait! I hadn't said anything? How…? Then I pieced it together. If it had control of my brain, the next logical step is the rest of my body, least of all my throat and mouth.

Report. The Visser's massive voice thundered into my head. Even if it was only thought speak, it still smarted.

"Minoi-Seven-Two-Nine, of the Culat Hesh pool. Reporting for duty."

What is the status of our Andalite bandit?

Are you going to tell him? I silently taunted the Yeerk. Go on. I dare you. Tell him he was wrong. But I doubt he'll like that too much.

It ignored me. "Visser, this boy is no bandit. He is merely a human boy. And he is no threat to us." I could feel myself sweating and trembling.

The Visser was silent for a moment. He's going to kill us, he's going to kill us, mumbled the Yeerk feverishly. It was freaking out completely.

Minoi-Seven-Two-Nine, announced the Visser at last, please remove yourself from your host. The Visser spoke almost pleasantly, as though he was inviting Minoi-Seven-Two-Nine to join him for a family get together or something.

The Yeerk was terrified. "Visser," my voice trembled as the Yeerk used it. "I am telling you the truth. I swear."

I don't doubt that. But please remove yourself from your host.

The Yeerk hung my head in quiet surrender and allowed us to be lead back towards the pool.

Just as they were about to thrust my head under the water, something went wrong. Don't ask me to explain it because I can't. My whole body convulsed like I was having some sort of fit. The Hork-Bajir, taken off guard, released their hold on my wrists for several seconds. They didn't waste any time getting hold of them again. Then I realised that, somehow, the Yeerk was leaving. Why was a mystery to me.

Time seemed to stop still. The Visser and everyone else present just stared at the Yeerk. Then the Visser started rapping out orders. I want a new host for Minoi-Seven-Two-Nine, immediately! And I want him, the Visser pointed a long finger in my direction, locked up until we can discover what happened.

I was promptly pulled off my feet and hauled away to a wall of cages and thrown into one. I lay where I had landed for a second, face down, trying to get past how nutso this all was. But I had seen it, and I know I don't hallucinate. I was not mad.

I picked myself up, and sat staring at nothing. Trying to figure out how to get out of here. It was hopeless. There was nothing I could do. I whipped around suddenly as I felt someone nudge me.

"Hi." Tall guy, dark hair, a few years older than me, looked like he wanted to kill himself but didn't quite know how. Fine, maybe I'm being a little extreme, but the guy did look like he had seen better times. "Are you really an Andalite?" His voice held a hidden awe.

I shook my head. "No."

"They say you are."

"Maybe they do," I snapped, "but I'm not. And I wish I'd never heard of the stupid word."

A girl who I hadn't noticed spoke up. Tall, blond hair, same age as the guy, you know the deal. "But you have to be."

"Why?" I asked her. "Because everyone wants to believe it?"

She simply nodded. "Otherwise there's no hope left."

"Hope of what?"

"Hope of being free," muttered the boy.

I snorted. "You make it sound like the slave trade or something."

"But it is. I have a family, okay? Every morning I eat my breakfast across the table from my little brother, goofing on and making jokes. He doesn't know that it's not me. He thinks his big brother's turned into some sort of evil demon and now we hate each other. He doesn't even guess. He can't guess, because I still act like me."

The girl spoke. "Me too. My cousin has just moved from Britain. Her parents are both dead." She stared at me hard as she said the word. "The Yeerk inside my head hasn't been nice to her since she got here. Even if things do change, Lee will hate me anyway."

"Gee, I'm sorry." I was sorry. I hadn't realised how tough it was. They waved off my apology and introduced themselves. I mean, let's face it. There was nothing else to do.

So this is how the story goes. Their names were Tom and Emma. Emma had been unhappy lately and she heard of this club called the Sharing and went to check it out. Tom, who liked Emma big time, decided to join up too, to see if he could talk to her. And it went from there, they became 'full members' and had a full time Yeerk for company.

I suppose they took a more round about route than I had of getting here, but let's face it, they both thought I was an Andalite bandit.

Does life get any better than this? I hope so. I really hope so.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

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Chapter 14 (Marco)

On Saturday we flew for about an hour before getting to where we needed to be. This place was a long way away, still in state but a different town. So we flew along, landed round the back of one of the shops and demorphed.

I suppose it was a stroke of luck on our part that today was really, _really_ hot, so the morphing outfits went mostly unnoticed. At least I hope they did. We aren't exactly what one would describe as fashionable.

We had to prowl the streets for a few minutes before finding the place we wanted. A little bookshop on one of the street corners. When we found it, we glanced at each other warily. How were we supposed to get in? Trust me, those Yeerks have a few nifty toys guarding entrances to important places. We'd almost been fried more than once. And even if it wasn't a Yeerk pool they'd still want this Joseph character guarded pretty well right? I mean, they thought he was an Andalite.

"Okay," I muttered, "We've found the place, there's no way in, we could turnaround and go home now."

"No," snapped Lee. "There's got to be a way in there. There's got to be."

She said it with slightly less conviction the second time round.

We stood in silence for a while. I presume we were thinking about how to get in. But my mind kept drifting away to the hotdog stand about halfway up the street. No, I'm kidding. But it was a problem that had us stuck for a while.

"Okay," I said, still thinking about the idea as I spoke. "Why don't we go in as moles? Burrow underneath the wall?"

"I can't do mole."

"I know, I know. But everyone else can. You can morph one of your birds and do surveillance."

"Marco, do you remember last time we did mole?" Rachel put her hands on her hips. "It took forever to actually get there. And some of us felt slightly claustrophobic if I remember rightly."

__

Slightly claustrophobic was a severe understatement. _Very_ claustrophobic would be a better term. But I'd had the nightmares too. And I still thought this would be the best way in.

"Do you have any better ideas?" Nobody said anything.

Suddenly Jake took charge. "Where can we morph?"

Tobias opened his wings and flew up and up. He inscribed a swift, irregular circle in the sky, then came back to roost. I think I have a place.

The back yard of the bookstore was the perfect place. Apparently the owners of the place unpacked their books and left the boxes lying about. And had done since the time of the dinosaurs. Jake had a calculating look on his face. "Lee? Could you go pigeon? Kestrels sitting about in trees are a little conspicuous."

"I know that," muttered Lee defiantly before morphing pigeon and flying to a nearby tree. I can see you. She said mockingly. I smiled thinly at her.

"Not when I take your eyes out you won't."

The next task was actually getting into the backyard. These people that had been around since the time of the dinosaurs to unpack their books had pretty modern security. However, they had holes in their fence. I mean, what's the point in that? They have up to date locks that were impossible to pick and there's a hole in the fence! I suppose it made our job easier though.

We all eventually made it through, although Cassie managed to get caught and we spent about five minutes getting her free. We were standing barefoot in someone else's yard about to turn into moles. Try and tell me that that is not insane.

It was Rachel who buckled. She threw her hands up in disgust. "There _has_ to be another way to do this. I refuse to go mole again."

"Look, Rachel," I countered, "Do you have a better idea?"

"Actually…" A sly grin began to spread across her face. I really shouldn't have asked.


	15. Chapter Fifteen

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Chapter 15 (Tobias)

The idea was crazy, insane and downright stupid. And that's exactly why we thought it would work. Step one: We would morph flies to see if this place was actually an entrance and work out how to get in. Usually they have a password or something. Step two: We use that password.

That's right, we were going in. As humans no less.

We were going to take shifts, but we barely had to wait five minutes for step one to be completed. You aren't going to believe the password – trust me. Get ready for it: "I love the way Beethoven writes." Definitely crazy. But you get used to the word crazy in this outfit.

We collected in the yard to decide what to do with this information. Lee, back in her human form, wanted to come. But I could tell nobody else wanted her to. We needed backup here, in case we needed to make a fast getaway. Eventually she gave in though and resumed her pigeon morph in the tree. Besides, she just couldn't morph fly.

We all debated who was going to go in, and in what order. We all agreed when Rachel declared that she was going in first. I assume she needed to redeem herself to the rest of us. But if she hadn't bailed I'm sure someone else would've done. She just had the guts to say it.

We waited five minutes before sending the next person in. Marco went hot on the heels of Rachel. Then Ax and Cassie (we couldn't trust him by himself), me then Jake. We expected some kind of harassment with all of us going in so close together, but the storeowner seemed kind of used to it.

When I went to the counter and repeated the password, the owner pulled up the hatch in the counter and ushered me through. We went into a backroom and he pulled back a picture above the fireplace to reveal a hole. I somehow managed to get to the hole and fall through onto a larger corridor. I stood upright and looked about as the storeowner slid the painting back into place. A sudden darkness washed over me and I shivered. I wasn't used to not being able to see much. Hawk's eyes don't work too well in darkness, but I've always got the moonlight to see by.

I put out a hand to feel my way along. The walls were dank, wet and cold under my fingertips. The texture of the wall kept switching between solid rock and dirt – like someone had just carved a tunnel through the ground.

I was starting to feel a severe case of claustrophobia coming on, so I hurried a little faster.

As I finally walked into the cavern that was the Yeerk pool, I felt someone grab my shoulder. "Tobias. Here." Cassie hissed, drawing me into a kind of cubby-hole to one side. A few minutes after me, Jake emerged. We were all here.

"Now what?" muttered Marco. "We're in. What do we do now?"

We didn't need to look far. At that moment there was a sudden commotion. I felt everybody stiffen as we waited to see if we had been discovered. But then I heard another voice yelling its head off. I ventured a look around and saw four Hork-Bajir, each with the ankle or wrist of a boy of about my age. There were four of them on one guy! They did not want him getting away any time soon.

I motioned to Marco to take a look. His face paled as he watched. "Is that Joseph?"

"Yeah." His voice sounded dry, like he needed to swallow. "Yeah, that's him."

"Okay, that's it." Jake sounded angry, almost outraged. "We're going all out. We are blowing right through this whole operation. Everybody, morph the biggest things you've got to do maximum damage."

"Wouldn't flies be the smarter option?" Not that I had a problem with going all out. We'd done too much of this in the dark.

Jake nodded. "Probably."


	16. Chapter Sixteen

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Chapter 16 (Joe)

I sat patiently waiting for whatever was going to happen to happen. They took their time about it. First Tom got taken away and then Emma. They didn't send anyone else in with me. I was alone and stranded in a place I knew nothing about.

Human. I snapped my head up to catch sight of Visser Three glaring down at me. Merely a human. What do you know? How were you able to extract Minoi-Seven-Two-Nine in the manner you did? Is it Andalite technology?

I watched his authoritative figure. Just by looking at the way he stood you could tell he had nothing to be afraid of. Nobody in a higher position than he was. Or nobody of any direct threat to him. And that included me.

Answer me.

"What makes you think I should answer to you?"

Need I remove another piece of your pathetic body to prove my point? The Andalites are not worth protecting. They are scum, the bane of the universe. They will loose and we shall have complete control. Only a fool could fail to see that.

I didn't say anything. I don't think he expected me to. He could tell I was at the end of my tether. He turned to the nearest Hork-Bajir. It wasn't like he had nobody to choose from. I'm guessing at around a dozen of them standing there. Take him. Immediately, two of them threw open the door and charged in. I didn't have enough time to get to my feet, they just each grabbed an arm and dragged me along on my back. As I was dragged past the Visser he sort of smiled at me with his eyes. I know it sounds crazy but that's what he did, I swear. You shall soon learn to _never_ keep information from me little human.

Two more Hork-Bajir joined the two at my arms and grabbed my feet. I twisted and squirmed but I'll tell you one thing about Hork-Bajir, they have one hell of a grip. Most of the people we passed pointed and laughed at me, nudged their friends and whispered behind their hands. The people in cages either screamed or wept. I think that was what they usually did though, and nobody took any notice of them.

We were headed toward a big building, almost like an office block. We went in, turned a corner and ended up in this dark, little room. The Hork-Bajir at my feet let go and the other two slammed me against a wall by my shoulders. For a moment I had the breath knocked out of me. I tried to curl myself up but couldn't, so I just stood there feeling like my lungs had been flattened.

Cover your eyes little human, mocked the Visser. You may not have seen this sort of thing before. He said this knowing full well that both my wrists were pinned and I couldn't cover my eyes even if I had wanted to. And trust me, I did want to. Anyway, I was curious.

The Visser started to change. At first I thought my eyes were going funny, but that was before both his front legs were suddenly sucked into his chest with a disgusting squelching sound. Two human Controllers who had come in with us held up the Visser as his back legs weren't strong enough to hold him up properly yet. His tail was the next thing to go, with a grating sound as his spine shortened to absorb it. His blue fur was changing too, from blue to a red purple type of colour. And it wasn't exactly fur any more, it was hardening into a kind of shell. Like an armadillo, or a suit of armour, like scales. I suddenly noticed that the hooves had melted away, into feet like yours or mine. Five toes and five toenails. Rather long toenails, but toenails nonetheless. Over his stomach and chest, the plates were a dirty cream colour, just like the palms of his hands. His knees gave a sickening crunch as they reversed direction. At this point he managed to stand upright on the strengthened legs. His eyes were changing. They were like a human's eyes, like spheres, but they were black. No whites, just a total, utter, complete black. Like a pit.

Basically, he looked like a tall human, with purple scales and black eyes. Then, taking me by surprise, two things shot out of the back of his neck. Like long, purple tentacles. Forget those two out of _Day of the Tentacle_, I am talking long whip-like things. And they were coming towards me.

I think he was done changing.

Do you like it? The Visser took a step towards me. I tried to push back, but I had a solid wall behind me. No? I had hoped to impress you. These, he waved the tentacles close to my face, are very pleasurable limbs. Almost like an Andalite tail, except that I have two of them. He took one of them under my chin and pushed my face up with a surprising force. He was forcing me to look into those black wells. I screwed up my eyes. You take no pleasure in my appearance? I felt the tentacle slide away from my chin and ventured opening an eye. The Visser was pacing the tiny, darkened room as though contemplating something. Then he returned his attention to me. Do you know what Balyma use these for? He waved them in front of me to emphasise the question. He didn't wait for the answer. He knew I didn't. Only the males of the species possess them. When they are courting a female, they will subdue her by applying them, here. He whipped them up against my temples. I took a deep breath, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did. Of course, the species is not sentient, and do not realise the full potential of them. These can discover anything about anybody. They can manipulate a person's subconscious and force them to reveal things that they didn't know they knew. He paused for a moment and sneered at me. Even the servants of the Andalite filth.

I felt a sudden throbbing pulse through both temples. At that moment I became lost to the world.


	17. Chapter Seventeen

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Chapter 17 (Marco)

That was the moment all hell broke loose.

I mean, lets think about this rationally. There was no way a gorilla, a tiger, a grizzly bear, two wolves and an Andalite were just going to cruise through a Yeerk pool in search of Visser Three without being noticed. So, we just ran for it.

We'd seen where they'd taken Joseph, and we were headed in that general direction.

To begin with we just blasted through, barrelling into people and causally pushing them out of our way. We weren't in this to hurt people, especially not the innocent people being held against their will. But we _did_ have a job to do. And when some smart-ass guy started shooting at us, we hauled butt a little faster.

We were almost there, when out of nowhere a small wall of Hork-Bajir appeared. About a dozen of them. Nobody hesitated. Everybody hacked, sliced and generally beat up anyone in our way. I took out a few people with a fist in my favour and they went down like bowling pins. Most of them had Dracon beams, but couldn't use them in such close quarters.

Marco! Called Jake as he raked his massive claws across the unfortunate belly of a Hork-Bajir. Take Ax and find Joseph! We can hold them for a while!

Yeah, but he means hurry up about it! Called Rachel as she sunk Grizzly teeth into another Hork-Bajir.

I clocked one more before joining Ax in a mad rush towards the door of the building. As soon as we stepped in the door we stopped. I turned to Ax. Which way?

He paused for a moment. This way. His answer was very definite. I have a sense that we should go this way.

No argument from my quarter. I turned the corner that Ax had indicated and raced down the corridor. At the end of it we came to a door. The handle had been made for hands a little smaller than mine, but I gripped it delicately with my forefinger and thumb and turned the handle.

The door swung open, and we burst through it. We burst through it in time to see something I'd never expected to see. That seems to be becoming a habit of mine. This _thing_ was purple, about seven-foot, and had _tentacles_ coming out of its neck. Tentacles it had pressed against each of Joseph's temples. Ax took care of the two Hork-Bajir at the door while I ploughed straight into Visser Three. Two more Hork-Bajir had Joseph by his shoulders and wrists and they couldn't figure out what to do with themselves. They obviously had their orders direct from Visser Three and weren't sure whether this was a good enough reason to disregard them.

I ran and collided heavily with Visser Three and we both fell in a tangled heap. The Hork-Bajir decided to act, but they decided to late as Ax attacked them with the flat of his tail blade, knocking them out. The Visser's tentacles left Joseph's temples with a snap and flailed around after me. Stay away from the tentacles Marco! Warned Ax.

I'd figured that would be a good idea, I muttered. But it was easier said than done. Then I had an idea. Ax…

Ax was already one step ahead of me. Move out of my way. Obediently, I rolled off the Visser. FWAP FWAP, down came Ax's tail blade twice on the flailing tentacles, taking them off right near the neck. Immediately, the Visser started to morph. I decided right then that I didn't want to hang around too long. I stepped over the Visser, scooped up Joseph's unconscious body and ran with Ax not far behind me.

As we burst out of the door, I shouted, Run for it! We've got him! And our odd assortment ran for cover under a sudden spray of Dracon fire.

Suddenly, a thought dawned on me. How the hell are we getting him out of here?

Just move it! Shouted Cassie, as strange as it is for Cassie to shout. Towards that building!

I saw the one she meant. About a hundred yards away. We could make it if we stepped on the gas. And we literally zoomed across the space. The door might have been locked, but after Rachel barrelled through it, we didn't get the chance to check since it tinkled to the floor in millions of little bits. A glass door in a Yeerk pool? Please! We were in and out of this place all the time and, man, we broke things. I'm just waiting for a bill of damages. But I suppose the Visser has a fat wallet.

Split up! Cried Jake. Give them six targets to follow! Morph something small and meet up later! With that he bounded up a corridor, closely followed by Ax. Rachel and Tobias ran straight ahead, and Cassie and I made for the last corridor.

We had hoped to split up again, but there turned out to only be one door so we both went in and closed it behind us.

Immediately we started to morph back to human. The black fur washed away and I got disappointingly shorter. But we had other things to think about. I looked to Cassie. "What should we do?"

"Flea," she said decisively. Then she hesitated. "Wait, we wouldn't know what was going on. Umm…" Her hands reeled as she racked her brains. I was racking mine too. Something small that would still know what was going on? "I think flea is way to insensitive," muttered Cassie.

"How about fly?"

Cassie nodded. "It'll have to do. Let's try and hide somewhere on him." She motioned towards Joseph. Then she looked to me again. "Do you think he'll be alright?"

I nodded hastily. Then I morphed into a fly.


	18. Chapter Eighteen

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Chapter 18 (Cassie)

What do you call a fly with no wings? Asked Marco as we hid in the folds of Joseph's T-shirt.

I have no idea. What do you call a fly with no wings?

A walk. There was a lengthy pause. When I didn't laugh Marco muttered, It's a good job you aren't Rachel.

We sat for a couple of minutes. What now?

I sighed. I have no idea. I suppose we sit and wait for something to happen.

Another minute, then, Hellloooo! Anybody out there? Then Marco said to me apologetically, I got bored of waiting.

Marco? Is Cassie with you? called Jake.

I'm here.

Good, that means we have everyone accounted for. Where, and what are you guys?

We're flies, supplied Marco, sitting somewhere inside Joseph's T-shirt.

Is he okay?

Well… he's still unconscious if that's what you mean.

Jake paused. They'll find him sooner or later. If push comes to shove, I want you guys to bail. We'll always have another chance to get him out. I'll give you a buzz if anything new shows up.

Buzz? Ha! We're flies! Buzz! Geddit?

Uh-huh, groaned Jake as Marco continued laughing. I get it.

__

Movement! Lots of movement!

Uh Jake, we're moving.

I want you guys to bail, right now, ordered Jake is his _leader_ voice.

I could almost imagine Marco shaking his head. No way. Ax and I didn't just bust him out of there to loose him again. Cassie can bail if she wants to, but I…

Don't be stupid Marco. I'm staying.

Why did everyone always assume I was going to bail out on them? Fine, I might not be the most blood thirsty of teenagers, but I knew where my loyalties lay. But I _was_ scared out of my wits. Any number of things could go wrong. But I held my tongue and clung tighter with my gross little fly legs to the threads in Joseph's T-shirt.

A fly's sense of movement is incredible. I could feel us being lifted off the ground and practically being thrown, never mind carried, across the floor. You still here?

Afraid I'd chicken out on you? Sometimes those little Rachel-isms are useful.

Suddenly everything stopped. And thank you for riding fly airlines. Please do not leave until the human has come to a complete stop as there is a definite squish risk when you are around humans. Thank you. Have a nice day.

I scanned the scene with my fly eyes, and saw nothing but darkness. I think we've come to that complete stop.

You guys still alive down there?

Tobias? That you?

None other. Listen, Jake's got a plan but he needs you two to bail. There's no fly swatters involved but…

Where are we?

You've been set down on the blown out glass.

Okay, so we were outside the original building. Great.

The plan? Prompted Marco.

The plan being that we make a break for it out the nearest exit, out through the MacDonalds and try for the forest.

That's crazy! I blurted.

That's why Rachel gave it the go ahead. I don't think your mom'll have time to get what she needs and make it out there before we disappear.

I had to admit, it was a decent plan that could work. There was only one problem. What about Joseph?

Our Jake thinks of just about everything Cassie. Thought you'd have more faith in him than that. But we really need you two out of there, back here preferably with something big. We're going to need to bully our way out. Oh, and Marco?

I'm going to regret asking. What?

We have a special mission for yourself and King Kong.

Big Jim. Marco corrected Tobias tensely. He hates being mistaken for King Kong.


	19. Chapter Nineteen

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Chapter 19 (Ax)

Everybody got it? Prince Jake looked to each of us seriously. His tiger-eyes sparkled dangerously. Ax? Do you know what you have to do?

"I must attempt to disable the Gleet BioFilter before your stage of the plan is completed. Pleeted. Com-pleeted."

Oh boy, muttered Marco in a pained voice, holding his huge gorilla head in his huge gorilla hands.

Just remember, continued Prince Jake, Ax may not be able to knock that thing out, so be ready for it.

There was a pause.

Rachel? Said Marco sweetly.

Yeah?

Your line?

Oh yeah. Sorry. Let's do it!

As Prince Jake and the others headed towards the building where they had last seen Joseph, I walked as calmly as I was able on these stilt-like human legs towards the entrance to the Yeerk pool that led to the MacDonalds. For the benefit of any Andalite readers, a MacDonalds is an establishment that serves various types of fast food. Fast food is a food group containing many styles of unhealthy earth food. It is quite delicious. I haven't time to go into the technicalities of taste at the present, but it is a most satisfactory sense.

My part of the plan was to provide a route of escape for my friends and Joseph. I was not sure what I made of this whole episode. The Ellimist having a human son seemed very unlikely, as well as being rather pointless. But, as I had said earlier, it did appear possible. So I prepared to disable the filters.

My heart leapt into my throat as I spotted the controls of the Biofilter. In appearance, they looked somewhat like a fuse box (controls for the electrical supply in human dwellings). The controls were in plain view. If I attempted to tamper with them, I would surely be spotted. I had to warn my friends!

At that point, an ear-splitting alarm sounded. I knew I was too late, they had been seen. And if I couldn't disable the Biofilter they would be disintegrated as they made their escape!

A Controller bumped into me. "What are you standing about for? Get to your battle station!" She ran a few paces, before stopping and turning slowly to face me. I did not wait for her to accuse me, I ran. I heard her scream of, "Andalite!" But I doubt anybody else did.

I quickly lost her and tried to get nearer to the filter. What could I do? Maybe someone would be stationed at the controls as a battle station. It was my only hope. I ran quickly towards my goal and, upon reaching it, flicked open the box. A series of coils and wires stared back at me. I thrust my hand inside and pulled. Nothing happened. If only I had my tail, I could get through the wires! But human hands were not designed with this sort of task in mind.

Suddenly, I felt a large hand on my shoulder. I was pulled roughly around to face the owner of that hand. A tall man with a heavy build glared at me. "Why are you tampering with the filter?" He paused for effect. "Andalite?"

I wrenched myself out of his grasp and ran. There was only one thing I could do. I tried to keep to the shadows as I returned to my Andalite form.

The first thing to appear was my fur, which washed over me like a wave. Then my eyestalks and my extra finger on each hand. I almost lost my balance as my front legs appeared out of my human chest. The Controller was trying to summon the attention of his friends. But I could not be caught until I had my tail and disabled the filter. Finally, I was an Andalite running around without a tail. With a satisfying crunch, my spine extended to accommodate my tail, and the skin at the end of it peeled back to reveal my blade. Now I was ready to fight. But I had a more pressing job first.

I reeled round and circled around my pursuer. My hooves clicked relentlessly against the rock floor as I pushed myself as hard as I was able.

Ax? Where are you?

I am coming Prince Jake.

I burst into plain sight and about half a dozen Controllers just stared at me in horror. The other half was staring at my friends. I saw a boy being held tightly by Marco, his back shielding Joseph from any blasts from the Controller's hand weapons. Without sparing another moment for sensible thought, I galloped over to the controls and sunk my tail deep into the wires.

I have accomplished my part of the plan Prince Jake.

Then move it!

Obediently I careened through the filter expecting to be burnt alive. Expecting to feel my eyeballs melt into little puddles. It never happened. Instead, I was confronted with an establishment full of diners. I could have stopped and asked if I could have some of the delicious delicacies, but that was not part of the plan. The screams of the diners told me that my friends were hot on my hooves.

Once outside, we tried to keep a low profile, keeping to side streets and alleys. Soon, we were out of the main city area and heading towards Cassie's house. As we neared the edge of our cover, Cassie spoke. Should I demorph and check out the house first? See if Mom and Dad are home?

Everyone agreed that that would be a good idea, so that's what we did. Cassie entered the house and we watched her systematically check each room. Lights clicked on and then off as she checked the different places. At last, she appeared on the porch and signalled that the coast was clear.

We all went into the barn and the rest of my friends demorphed. As they were doing so I checked Joseph over. He seemed to be all right, aside from being unconscious of course.

"We left Lee!" I turned to see Rachel fully human, with a panic-stricken look on her face.

Tobias hopped off the floor and flew up to his rafter. I'll fetch her Rachel, don't you worry yourself. I'll be back within the hour. With that he shot out of the barn door into a sky that was darkening with each passing minute.

I'm sure Rachel would have replied to Tobias's sarcasm, but Joseph caught her eye. "How is he?"

Jake looked thoughtful for a second. "I have no idea. I think he's been unconscious since Marco and Ax found him."

It was a Balyma. I stated firmly.

"What?" Marco made it sound as though I was mentally unstable.

A Balyma. Visser Three's Morph was a Balyma. The species has strong psychic abilities. Joseph could remain like this for at least a day.

"But he can't!" Cried Cassie.

I'm afraid he could Cassie.

"No! What am I going to tell my parents? What are we going to do with him?"

"He could come round before then though, couldn't he?" Rachel looked to me for confirmation.

I nodded. Possibly.

Rachel looked around at us all. "Then we wait until he does, don't we."

So we waited.

We waited and waited. Tobias and Lee flew in. We still had a while to wait.


	20. Chapter Twenty

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Chapter 20 (Joe)

The first thing I heard when I finally came to, was an ominous _tick tock, tick tock_. It took me a few seconds to realise that I had my ear on top of my wristwatch. It had – somehow – survived this whole ordeal.

I lay where I was for a while, to get myself orientated. I was lying face down on a bare, concrete floor. And, let's face it, it did not smell all that good.

"I can't believe he's still out cold." That voice! I knew it from somewhere. Where did I know it from?

"Well, you weren't exactly too careful were you?" A girl's voice, she sounded about my age. Did she go to my school?

"We were in a hurry," protested the owner of the first voice. "Subtly wasn't exactly an option I had open to me."

"At least you got him out at all." I knew that one too! A girl this time, again, she sounded around my age. A slightly more no nonsense sound to it, but I still knew it.

Finally gathering my wits, I pushed myself to my elbows and looked about. There were animal cages everywhere. I should have heard the animals earlier but I forgave myself. I was having a rough day. I was in some kind of barn. And around me were six kids. Three girls and three boys. I suppose the two things that surprised me most were Marco and Leanne. If I'd expected anything it was _not_ seeing those two here.

One of the guys, a tall boy with brown hair, stooped down next to me. "You okay?"

I nodded dumbly. "Yeah." After a moments pause I continued. "What's going on here? Who are you guys?"

"I'm Jake," said the tall boy, indicating each person as he told me his or her name. "That's Rachel, Marco, Lee, Cassie, Ax, and the hawk's Tobias."

A hawk? I glanced above my head into the rafters, and sure enough, there was a hawk watching me. Not just looking at me, not trying to decide if it could eat me or anything. Watching me – with an intelligent interest.

It's a lot to get your head round, but you'll work it out eventually.

I instinctively recoiled. I'd had nothing but bad experiences with thought speech.

"It's okay." That was Cassie, a dark skinned girl with short hair. "It was just Tobias."

"He talked to me inside my head."

She nodded. "I know. I heard him too. But that's okay."

"No Cassie, I don't think you understand. He talked to me _inside_ my head. How can that be okay?"

"You're just going to have to trust me."

I must've looked like a scared rabbit. I suppose I acted that way. Come to think of it, I felt exactly like a scared rabbit.

I glanced overhead warily. The hawk was still watching me out of those predatory eyes. Sharp, fierce and calculating. Whether he talked or not, he was definitely intelligent. "Sorry Tobias." I spoke slowly, still wondering whether I'd get an answer back at all.

No problem.

I looked round again. "So what _is_ going on here? I mean, last time I checked birds do not talk. Nothing talks to people inside their heads. Those people are classed as being totally _nutso_!"

The girl with the long blond hair – Rachel – spoke. "I know this seems a little confusing right now Joe. But, trust me, it can be explained."

"How?" I was starting to loose my rag now. "Aliens? Is that it? Aliens came and infested my mind?"

They all looked at each other uncomfortably. Ax, who was a disturbingly pretty guy and looked a little like each of them except Lee and Tobias, spoke. He didn't seem to realise that I had been trying to be sarcastic. "Exactly."

He looked like was going to say something else, but Jake looked to him sternly. "Not now Ax. Try not to play with the only word you've said all evening."

Ax looked slightly sheepish.

I slowly got to my feet and looked about at them. They looked like they could be anybody I knew. One of my friends at school, anyone. "You do realise that what you're telling me is absolutely crazy, right? What you're asking me to believe here is absolute lunacy."

"What's crazier?" asked Marco thoughtfully. "Things talking to you inside your head? Crazy purple things knocking you cold? Yeerks? Or – us?"

"You want the truth?"

"The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."

"Okay. I don't know which is crazier. But I have a feeling I like this side of crazy better than that side of crazy. Does that make sense to anybody?"

Nothing ever made better sense. I glanced up at Tobias and smiled at him. He was an all right kid… hawk… whatever.

"Thanks."

There was a lengthy pause. Then Ax said, "What do we do now?"


	21. Chapter Twenty One

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Chapter 21 (Rachel)

That was a good question. What to do now? We'd gone and busted Joseph out and we didn't know what we were going to do with him. I mean, every Controller in the United States of America was going to be looking for him. 

Joseph started fidgeting. "I'm becoming a problem right?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, just slightly."

"Well I can take care of myself. I can find my own way home from here."

"No you can't." Jake's words came off slightly sharper than I imagine he meant them to. "You can't go home."

"Why not?"

"Maybe it escaped your notice," observed Marco, "but the Yeerks are not very forgiving right?"

Joseph watched Marco warily. "Right."

"But maybe, if they know which school you attend, they might know where you live. And if you go back there any time soon they might kidnap you again."

"And you think my parents are about to let that happen?"

"Joseph, don't you get it? Your parents could be one of them. Either, or both, of your parents could be a Controller. Especially if they're _your_ parents." Joseph looked at me in pure shock. That thought had obviously skipped his notice.

"That's a lie."

I shook my head. "It's not. Look, you can go home right now, okay? Nobody's stopping you. But, like Marco said, Visser Three knows who you are. He knows where you are. And I'm guessing that he wants you dead. Especially if you managed to escape from right under his nose. He won't let you off lightly. He may even know what you are."

"What do you mean? I'm just a kid, I'm nothing special."

I felt so guilty. I really did. What had happened to Joseph was mostly our fault. Us Animorphs. If we weren't around Visser Three might not have been so eager to kill him. Joseph glared at me. "What am I, if you're so sure?"

"Joseph," said Jake, "have you ever heard of an Ellimist?"

"No," muttered Joseph irritably. "And I really don't care."

What do you know about your dad? Tobias's question had evidently taken Joseph off guard, but he managed to play along with, what he thought was, a game.

"Tall guy, about forty. Sandy hair, looks a bit like me…"

"That's not who he means." Lee looked at the floor before bringing her gaze back to Joseph's.

"Who else can he be talking about? I only have one dad. Right?"

If the situation hadn't been so tense, I would have laughed. He was ready to question everything.

"Well, no." Lee rubbed the back of her neck before continuing. "We think you're half Ellimist."

"I hope he is," muttered Marco not-quite-under-his-breath. "We didn't just bust him out of a Yeerk pool so he could come out to play."

"Shut up, Marco," snapped Lee shortly. "Now is really _not_ the time."

"Can I ask a question? What the heck is an Ellimist? I've seen a lot of strange things in the past few days, but I don't think I've seen one of those."

"So you believe us?" Cassie asked the question gently, the only way the girl knows how.

Joseph paused for a moment. "I think so. But could you just answer the question? What's an Ellimist? And how do you guys figure that one is my dad? For that matter, how do you figure I have two dads? I mean, that's supposed to be impossible."

"Well…" Man, this was going to be tough to explain. "You don't exactly have to fathers. Not how you mean it anyway. Your mother and father had a child, hunky dory, but the Ellimist got a look at their hand." I paused, trying to think of something that would make him stop thinking I was a lunatic. Oddly enough, it was Lee that came up with the near-perfect explanation.

"You remember in the bible? How Jesus claimed to be the son of God?"

Who is Jesus? Muttered Ax to himself. Everyone ignored him, except Joseph who seemed to back off just a little.

Lee continued, "Well, excuse my thinking so, but I can't really imagine Mary and God having passionate sex. I mean, that doesn't present me with a pretty picture. You know?" She glanced around at us all, trying to keep a straight face as she watched us all double up laughing. "What? All I said was…" At that point she broke into the giggles as well. It was contagious. Even Ax was laughing. Smiling. With his eyes. Sort of. You get the general idea anyway.

It was after we'd more or less managed to quieten down that Ax said, Why do humans find sexual intercourse amusing? And that just started us up all over again.

Eventually we managed to calm down. Eventually. Marco kept saying, "Oh God!" And starting us up all over again.

That had been what we needed. Joseph wasn't quite so scared of us anymore. He'd even grown a little more comfortable with Ax and didn't pull away every time Ax spoke. "My God!" cried Marco making everyone break out in hysterics of laughter. I suppose it was good for us.

Finally the snorts of laughter subsided and we sat or stood where we were for a while, trying to get our breath back. Then Jake said, "Back to business guys." We all groaned and complained. But Jake was in sensible guy mode and wasn't about to be swayed. Marco bellowed out his favourite phrase again, provoking Jake into giving the evil eye. Then, after making Marco cower quite convincingly into the corner, Jake turned back to the rest of us. "I have a plan," he declared.


	22. Chapter Twenty Two

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Chapter 22 (Joe)

My response to that statement was: "Oh shoot."

I soon found out about Jake's _idea_. And I wasn't too happy about it. But, as Marco pointed out for me, I couldn't come up with any better ideas of my own.

This was the idea: Ax has a human morph. But it's unique. You remember how I said he looked a little like Cassie, Marco, Jake and Rachel? Well, he acquired each of them and then mixed their DNA. Apparently, _apparently_, it's simple to do.

So, I had to sneak into my house, acquire my mom and dad and mix the DNA, trying to look as different from who I used to be as possible. Then I had to stay _over_ the two-hour time limit. Meaning I would be a _nothlit_. Meaning… I would be stuck in morph. But, as I pointed out to them, that would mean that I wouldn't Joe anymore. I would be someone else entirely.

"I don't know if I can handle that," I told them miserably, making as though I was watching my feet intently. I felt like I was being so ungrateful. To put it simply, these guys had saved my life. I trusted them. But I wouldn't take their advice. But was this a matter of taking advice? This was them asking me to change who I was. I could never be Joseph again. Never.

"Well, unless you have a better idea…" Marco let the comment hang. After I got out of this mess, I'd have to tell him what a complete and utter jerk he was. Meaning it in the nicest way possible, of course.

I sighed. "The point being, Marco, that I don't have one. I wish I did."

"Look," said Cassie. "You don't have to decide anything right now. Sleep on it."

I shot her a grateful smile. I intended to do just that.

I didn't go home that night. I couldn't. Firstly, the Yeerks know where I live and would be waiting for me to head straight there. Secondly, my parents would not let me out of their sight. I'd been missing for an entire week, they weren't about to risk losing me again. I really did not want to think about the thirdly. That my parents might have become Controllers.

Instead, Tobias and Ax showed me a spot in the forest where I'd be comfortable for the night. At least, that's what they said. I didn't go home, but I didn't sleep either. I was nervous, jumpy and downright scared. Every little noise in the undergrowth made me want to shoot to my feet and run home screaming. Have my mom tell me that everything was all right, and to go to sleep in my own bed. _Forget it_, I told myself sternly. _You aren't going back home all right? Deal with it_. Somehow, it didn't help.

By the morning I had decided. Crazy as it sounds, I was going to morph my parents. Stupid, crazy, idiotic lunacy, right? Yeah, I know. That's exactly what I said.

We stood at the bottom of my street. Well… _I_ stood at the bottom of my street. Everyone else had morphed and was watching for any signs of trouble. I had been shown the blue box, and used it. So I was morph capable. But Jake had been very strict. I was only to acquire my mom and dad, nothing else. After about an hour in tuition with Ax, he felt I was ready.

So, there I was. Waiting for the signal. All clear, rang out Rachel's thought speak voice. Six more voices sounded out. Now it was my turn to move it.

Joe? I looked up. I couldn't see Jake anywhere, but that didn't surprise me. He could have been anywhere. Don't let them see you.

I nodded. If – heaven forbid – my parents _had_ been made into Controllers, we didn't want them to work out where I had gone. But we figured that they would work it out for themselves if they woke up to find me about to acquire them. So I took Jake's warning _very_ seriously.

I took a glance up at my house. We had worked it all out before hand. My house was on the end of a street, and had a very conveniently mature tree growing outside it. One of the branches was only a short jump away from my bedroom window, which had been left open. I had often looked out of the window, imagining how easy it would be to get out. I had never done it of course. Not until now. Except, now I was doing it in reverse. Breaking in instead of out.

Reaching for the lowest branch, I put both hands above my head and jumped. I felt my fingers wrap securely around the branch. The bark was rough under my fingertips and it gave me a good grip. The branch was slightly higher off the ground than my arms would reach, so my feet were dangling a few inches from the ground. Walking carefully up the trunk, I finally managed to tuck my legs around the branch and let go of it with both hands. I was literally hooked on by my knees. Careful there Joe. I was so surprised that I nearly fell out of the tree. Glancing into the branches, I spotted an owl. She cocked her head before stretching out her wings and taking flight. Cassie.

Swinging, I made a grab for another branch. Missed! Taking a deep breath, I swung out hard and managed to grab the next branch. It more or less went on like that, until about the eighth branch up, when I managed to get a good hold with my feet. I stood upright, shakily at first, but getting more confident with every step.

Cautiously, I made my way to the window and hoisted myself in. This was easier than I had thought it would be. Jumping off the sill, I felt my feet touch solid ground. I darted a look about. My room. Posters of the latest video games across my walls, a book I had been reading on the desk. I had been going to tidy my bedroom hadn't I? That's why it was still a pigsty. My parents had barely touched it. Someone had thought to turn my computer off, but the cartridge was still in the slot. I wondered if they had saved the game.

Shaking my head, I pressed on. I still had to make it through Chance's room, which was joined onto mine. The house was built so that you had to go through his room to get to mine from the landing. I walked as quietly as I could through the bedroom. A board squeaked.

I held my breath anxiously. Had he heard? To my horror the quilt shifted, and Chance peered out from under the covers. "Joe?"

I let the breath out and took another deep one before walking to my brother. I could only think of one thing to do. I sat on the edge of his bed. "You're having a dream Chance."

Normally, he wouldn't have believed me, but he was still half-asleep. "A dream?"

I nodded. "I'm not really here. You're just dreaming."

"I wish it were real."

I chewed my lower lip and felt a single tear begin to well up in each eye. "So do I buddy. So do I." I put a hand to his forehead. "Now do me a favour? Go back to sleep."

Obediently he did so. Carefully I took my hand from his forehead and glanced at it. I had done it. Jake was going to go nuts, but he would understand right? I had had to do it otherwise Chance would have woken the whole house. I had just acquired my little brother.


	23. Chapter Twenty Three

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Chapter 23 (Joe)

I paused for a second to let that sink in. I had just acquired Chance. His DNA was floating about in my bloodstream and he was a part of me. Whoa.

I continued on through the house, knowing my way like the back of my hand. Had I not crept this way hundreds of times whenever I needed to pee? But, instead of going into the bathroom I turned right towards my parents' room.

I was about to turn the doorknob but stopped. What if they were both awake? Or even just one of them lying awake in bed? I swallowed hard. What would the Yeerks do to me if I got caught again? _If_ my parents were Controllers. Somehow I doubted it. But, like they said, it could be anyone. It wasn't a chance I could afford to take.

Taking a deep breath I tightened my grip on the handle and slowly turned it.

Nothing. No shout of alarm, nothing.

I pushed it a bit further, until I could see inside the room. They were both there, my parents. Mom's long red hair looked like a fiery serpent wriggling about her pillow. Just the way I'd always remembered. Dad looked like he'd grown old. Extra lines creased his face where they hadn't before. Worry. Worry lines, from worrying about me. Wasn't that proof enough? A Yeerk wouldn't worry about me. But… There's always a but. And, like I said, I wasn't prepared to take chances. Best just to get it over with.

I moved round to my mom's side of the bed and put a hand to her forehead. Her expression changed slightly, but there was nothing else to indicate that she knew there was anyone else in the room. I closed my eyes to help myself concentrate. Within a few seconds it was done. I had acquired my mom.

Moving around to my dad's side of the bed I repeated the procedure. This time I put a hand on his shoulder and acquired him.

Stepping away from the bed I felt slightly nauseous. It was finally dawning on me what I had done, and what I was going to have to do later on. I mean, I knew what I was going to have to do before now, but now that I was busy doing it… Just gives you a lot to think about.

Suddenly, I had an idea. It was a stupid idea as well as a crazy one, but I'd passed stupid _and_ crazy in my last English class. Silently I tiptoed down the stairs and stopped at the bottom of the stairwell. What was the code again? Finally remembering it I crept down the last few stairs and burst across the hallway. The loud beeping of the alarm cut through the silence, and the numbers seemed to beep louder again. Putting in the four-digit code I finally managed to restore silence.

I stood and dragged in a couple of deep breaths and listened hard. I hoped and hoped that nobody had heard it. No such luck.

Joe? What the hell do you think you're doing? Get your butt out of there right now! Of course, I'd rather have had the guys hear it than my family. Lee's thought speak shouts were accompanied by others, but I kept toward my goal.

I made it into the kitchen and glanced about. Where was it? If she'd moved it I'd have risked the alarm for nothing. Then I spotted it hiding by the toaster. The pad of sticky notes and the pen. My eyes wandered over to the fridge. Notes were plastered all over it. Most of them about me. I shook my head slowly as I picked up the pen. I was severely tempted to forget everything and go wake up my mom and dad. But I had to get it through my thick head that that wasn't about to happen, and no amount of sticky notes could change that.

I gnawed at the end of the pen for a few seconds. Then wrote.

__

Mom & Dad,

Don't worry about me, I'm okay. Can't tell you much. But I really am fine and tell Chance that I love him. Okay?

Love Joe

That was all I could think of to write. I let the pen fall onto the worktop with a clatter. With trembling fingers I took the sticky note and stuck it onto the fridge. I didn't know when they would see it, but they would eventually find it. And if they were Controllers, there was nothing they could use to find me or know what I was about to do. After a second more thought I took the pen and added to my note.

__

Chance? Some dreams do come true.

Could anything be cornier? Probably. You never know.

I debated using the backdoor to make my escape, but the key was missing from the lock. So I trudged back up the stairs and let myself back out of my bedroom window. I left the alarm switched off. I saw no point in turning it back on again.


	24. Chapter Twenty Four

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Chapter 24 (Tobias)

I felt kind of sorry for the guy. I mean, none of this was his fault. He didn't say that he wanted to the Ellimist's son did he? But, here he was about to change who he was – forever.

Since I'd first met the Andalite, a lot of things had changed for me. I was a hawk. I hunted and ate what I killed. I'd become what Joe was about to. A _nothlit_. Except that I hadn't _had_ to do it, it had been an accident. It couldn't be helped.

For some reason, thinking about Joe's situation brought back memories of David. David had innocently got caught up in all this, but had turned out to be a liability to all of us. It was similar to Lee's situation too. She hadn't asked for her parents to be made into Controllers and get blown up in a factory, but there it was. It had happened. In fact, come to think of it, none of us had _asked_ for this to happen to us. Hard? Yeah. But that was how life worked. It showed no pity for the individual.

How long is he going to stay in there? Muttered Rachel, raking her tongue through her fur. Rachel had gone cat, and was waiting impatiently in the tree.

Let him take as long as he needs. I wouldn't blame him if he decided not to come out at all. Cassie glanced about. Where are you guys anyway?

You mean, you're an _owl_ and you can't see me?

Where are you Marco?

Rachel knows.

I instinctively looked across at Rachel. You let him go flea on you?

Rachel's cat eyes glared at me dangerously from the next tree. Then she continued washing herself.

It was already pretty late by the time Joe made it out of his bedroom window and down onto solid ground again. He looked pale, shocked. As though what he was doing had finally dawned on him. I couldn't blame him.

You okay?

Joe paused for a second before answering Lee's question with a tense nod. Lee – the Eurasian Kestrel – looked somewhat worried. I was worried too. She had insisted on the Kestrel, although they stick out like a sore thumb. Maybe they didn't in Britain, but here is a different matter. If anyone with any knowledge on birds happened to walk past… I wish she hadn't taken a particular liking to her Kestrel morph. Although, I suppose it's one of the only things she has to connect with Britain.

I returned my attention to Joe. Then I glanced about. I'd already spotted who I was looking for. Ax? I called. You ready?

Ax was in his human morph and raised his hand in a small wave as he approached Joe.

With my hearing it was hard not to overhear their conversation. "Have you done it?" Ax was whispering, but to me it still sounded like he was speaking through a megaphone.

"Uh-huh."

"We have to leave then."

I smiled as I realised how much this sounded like a gangster movie. Well, I can't physically smile, but I definitely chortled to myself. Ax and Joe sauntered off and the rest of us weren't far behind him. We met up in the park.

It's an old park that no one uses much any more. There's all the druggies and alcoholics about. But it was too late right now even for them. The rest of us hung back from Joe and Ax. The idea being that too many kids our age walking around at this time of night would be a little conspicuous. I got there after Ax and Joe, but before everyone else.

Joe was pacing around chewing his lower lip nervously and Ax was standing watching him. Making for the swing Joe dropped on and swung himself a little. Ax sauntered over. "What's this?"

Joe looked up. He was frowning slightly. Still chewing on his lip. Like he had a lot on his mind. "A swing Ax."

"What's it for?"

"Swinging… I guess."

"How do you use it? You-zuh. Zuh."

Joe looked slightly taken aback. "You sit on it and use you legs to make yourself swing."

"Oh." Ax tried to sit on the swing three times before managing not to fall off. He sat, grinning triumphantly at Joe. "Now what?"

Joe smiled slightly. "That might be a bit dangerous for now Ax. Why don't you just practise sitting on it?"

And that's what he did for the next few minutes before the others showed up. Practised sitting on a swing and getting off again. Most of the time missing his target and ending up with his butt in the dirt. Joe put out a hand to help him up. "Maybe when you get a bit better at it I'll show how to do the thing with your legs."

"You'll teach me how to fully use a swing? Tee-ch. Eee-ch."

"That I will. But you definitely need a bit more practise at getting on one first."

Eventually the others made it and managed to put a stop to Ax's swinging. Also known as getting on and off a swing with incredible inaccuracy. After checking that Joe was okay and he hadn't been seen, they said their good-byes and headed home hoping that they hadn't been missed.


	25. Chapter Twenty Five

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Chapter 25 (Ax)

The mission had gone well. Joseph had, as far as I could gather, been successful. But he still seemed somewhat subdued.

Once Prince Jake and the others had left for their respective homes Joseph, Tobias and I headed for ours. Strictly speaking, Joseph did not actually have a home but he was more than welcome to share my own. Tobias, who was flying ahead of us, pulled back. Are you sure you're feeling okay Joe?

Joseph nodded slowly. "I guess it's just a lot to take in." He scuffed a shoe against the ground sending some of the small stones rolling away. I took it to be a mild form of human annoyance.

"Are you certain you can cope with your situation?" I resisted the urge to play with the sounds. I was concerned for my new friend and I had found, through experience, that the pleasure you get from experimenting with sounds irritates humans a great deal. Joseph did not appear to be in the right mood to be irritated.

He turned to look at me. "Ax. Thank you. But I can handle it. I'm a young adult right? I mean, I can handle mental stress. It's not a problem."

He sounded like he was trying to convince himself rather than me.

There was silence for a few minutes, each of us thinking our own private thoughts. The next part of the plan was going to be the hardest on Joseph. He was going to combine the different morphs he had acquired, and then morph the new human. He was going to stay like that forever and he wouldn't be able to turn back from it. He said he wasn't afraid. He was a very good actor and he was telling lies at exactly the same time.

We walked towards the woods and as soon as we were far enough away I returned to my Andalite body. Joseph watched me morph with interest. "It's like someone pouring thinner on a painting. Everything gets mixed up and moved around, looking completely different than what it started from."

I bowed my head slightly. A very attractive description.

He smiled grimly at me. "Thanks. But that was anything but attractive."

Tobias landed in a tree overhead. Look, guys. We have things to do that are going to take up a little of our time. Can we get a move on?

We continued, deeper into the forest.

Okay, this should be far enough. Tobias came to rest on a tree trunk that had been toppled by the wind some years ago. Joseph sat next to him, staring intently at his feet. "I really don't want to do this."

Don't feel you have to. You can bail.

"And then what? Run for the rest of my life? I don't want to do this, but I haven't come this far to stop at the last stretch."

Supporting his head in his hands, Joseph set about restructuring the DNA he had absorbed. I could have completed the task in mere minutes, but Joseph was inexperienced and took at least ten minutes. When he had finished he looked up. "Would you guys do me a favour?"

What? Tobias's head cocked to one side curiously.

"Look at me now. If anyone ever asks you to remember me, remember me like this. Not like the person I'm going to become. Can you do that?"

Sure.

Of course. Again, I bowed my head in a sign of respect for the human.

"Thanks."

He closed his eyes, and I watched the changes occur.

I heard a slight grating noise as his spine extended a few inches. An extra finger sprang out of his hand where the old one had been severed. His hair changed from being a light brown to being a darker shade.

There were no massive differences as he was morphing from a human to another human. All the limbs stayed in the same place.

Eventually, the morph was completed. He looked up at Tobias and I. What was immensely striking about the whole thing was that, although he looked physically different, his eyes stayed exactly the same. There is a human saying that the eyes are the windows to the soul, and I believe it to be true. The eyes said everything about who Joseph was and who he had ever been. Whether or not he had controlled the eyes when he morphed, I will never know. I don't believe Joseph would know himself.

He held up his hand in front of his face and studied his finger closely and then held it out for our inspection. "Look. New finger."

We both agreed with him. The next two hours were uncomfortable to say the least. We tried to fill it up with small talk, but the talk was forced and laughter strained. We were all very, very worried.


	26. Chapter Twenty Six

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Chapter 26 (Joe)

For the last few minutes we sat in silence. I was wishing I had put my watch in my pocket, but I couldn't bring myself to do it now. So I stared at the face, oblivious to the fact that Ax and Tobias were still there.

How long? Tobias leaned over the branch. I knew that he could read the watch from where he was and was just trying to make conversation.

Ax answered for me. Three minutes.

Okay. He settled himself back onto the branch. We can handle three minutes. It's the silence I can't stand.

"Sorry."

For what?

"I don't know." I looked at my hands. A bit bigger than they used to be, but they were _my_ hands. No little finger missing on the left hand. Mine. Or they were about to be in a few minutes.

About five minutes over the two-hour mark Ax said carefully, Shall we see if it worked?

I took the hint. They wanted to make sure I couldn't morph anymore. I sighed. There was only one way to find out. I formed a mental picture of myself, of Joe, and concentrated hard. I tried to imagine myself _becoming_ Joe. After a while I looked up. Ax shook his head, a gesture he'd picked up from humans, and I knew. I was never going to be Joe again.

I caught Tobias watching me carefully. Are you sure you're going to be okay?

I nodded. "Probably. Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." I could feel my eyes growing damp. No doubt they could tell, but they kept it to themselves.

You know, said Tobias thoughtfully, we could pretend the next part.

He was offering me a way out. Truth be told, the next part of the plan was terrifying to me. I shook my head. It felt strange, my head was a slightly different shape now and I had to hold myself differently. "No. It'll look less suspicious if we do it properly."

Ax and I stood up. Ax had every one of his four eyes focused on me. You're sure?

I frowned slightly. "Do you two _want_ me to bail or something?"

No Joseph. It's just…

"And another thing. I've had it with this Joseph rubbish. You call me Joe, okay?"

Fine, Joe. Just make sure you remember your story. Tobias's language for: Hope I see you around.

"Don't worry. I do not want to go through the whole Visser Three thing again." I paused for a second. Then I said, "C'mon Ax. If I wait one more second I'm going to bail." I could've sworn he deliberately waited that one second, giving me the chance if I wanted it.

Then came the part I had dreaded. Ax drew the blade faster than I had known he could and knocked me cold. I was unconscious with the first hit. Following the plan with complete accuracy.

You see, I was slightly afraid of being unconscious. As you may recall most of my involvement with the Yeerks was spent that way. I'd quickly found out that you are way too vulnerable that way. But Ax and Tobias had promised they would watch out for me for as long as they were able. And I trusted them.

The next few weeks were a complete blur. I remember I was in hospital at one point, and they kept asking me all these questions. I think I mostly managed to stick to the story. That I didn't remember anything about who I was or where I lived. Whatever I said, it worked. As soon as I was deemed fit, after about a week, they had me moved into a foster home. I still claimed to remember nothing. My 'new' parents were nice enough people, mostly letting me come and go as I pleased. I didn't go anywhere for the first week or so. I was still trying to find my feet.

During the second week, I decided to pay the guys a visit.


	27. Chapter Twenty Seven

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Chapter 27 (Joe)

I eventually found Cassie's place – somehow. They'd promised me that they would be here from five until eight every evening until I found them. I should have come earlier, to let them know I was all right. It was just after five now. Taking a deep breath I walked towards the barn.

Not knowing whether I should just barge straight in, I paused for a second and then knocked. The talk from inside hushed and Cassie's face peered around the door. Her expression seemed to droop when she saw me. "Hi. Can I help you?" She didn't recognise me. Why? Then I realised; they hadn't seen me like this yet had they? They didn't know what I would look like.

I decided to try something. "Is Joe around?"

Trying not to give away that she knew anything, Cassie said, "You mean that kid who's gone missing? No. Why? Who are you?"

A bit of fast thinking helped me out. "Richard. I'm Joe's older brother."

"What makes you think he'd be here?"

"We got a call at home a little while ago saying he would be."

Cassie's face paled a couple of shades. But she managed to keep herself from total panic. "No," she muttered, "he's not here." She proceeded to slam the door in my face.

Why had I just done that? The answer was simple, I just didn't really want to think about it. I really wasn't Joe anymore. Although, that was the name my new parents had chosen out for me when I insisted I couldn't remember my own. But Cassie's actions had just proved it. So I was still called Joe, but I wasn't really Joe at all was I? Not the same Joe I had been a few days ago. Not really.

In my frustration, I kicked the barn wall and swore at myself angrily.

They either heard me swearing, or they were just a little slow at figuring it out. "Joe?"

I turned back to the door. Cassie was smiling at me. "Hi Cassie." I smiled slightly and gave her a little wave, even though I was standing just feet away from her.

"Tobias just flew over your head. Sorry." Tobias had flown overhead and recognised me. Then he'd chewed them all out for slamming the door in my face. Not like I was going to be chewing anybody out myself for a long time. She beckoned to me, and I went in to talk to the only seven people who really knew who I was.

I certainly wasn't about to count myself as knowing who I was anymore.


End file.
